Dating from circa 1885, this original panoramic print presents the extensive view from the Esel, one of the principal summits of Mount Pilatus overlooking Lucerne. Its altitude is historically recorded on the work as 2,123 metres. The image was engraved by C. Bertrand with the precision required of nineteenth-century Alpine panoramas.
The exceptionally wide composition stretches from the lakes and lower valleys of Central Switzerland to the distant chain of Alpine peaks. Dark rocky formations frame the foreground, while overlapping ridges gradually recede towards the finely drawn horizon. The result conveys both the dramatic height of the viewpoint and the immense geographical range visible from Mount Pilatus.
Numerous mountains, lakes and settlements are identified above the landscape using delicate vertical guide lines. These annotations allowed travellers to recognise the surrounding topography and transformed the panorama into both a decorative landscape and a practical geographical reference.
By the late nineteenth century, Mount Pilatus had become one of Switzerland’s most celebrated tourist destinations. Queen Victoria ascended the mountain by mule in 1868, and this panorama was produced shortly before the opening of the Pilatus cogwheel railway in 1889. The new railway would make the summit considerably more accessible and become an important symbol of Swiss Alpine engineering.
With its impressive horizontal format, detailed engraving and connection to the early history of Swiss mountain tourism, this original panorama will appeal to collectors of Alpine imagery, antique travel prints, mountaineering history and European topographical works. It offers an elegant historical record of Mount Pilatus before the arrival of modern summit transportation.
Original Poster
Switzerland - Alps - Map
Uranse Alps
B. Schwarze Leipzig
Good condition, traces of folds
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