Turner combines the translucency of pure watercolour with opaque body-colour to convey the dazzling fusion of light and mountain mist enveloping the scene. Architecture and mountains appear to emerge from and dissolve back into the atmospheric vapour. It is possible that Turner worked on this during or just after his return from his second visit to Switzerland in 1836. He was accompanied on the trip by his friend and patron Hugh Munro of Novar, a young Scottish landowner and amateur painter.