Landscape, Jungfrau, Switzerland

William Trost Richards (1833–1905) sketched the Jungfrau during travels through the Swiss Alps, employing the detailed linear hatching technique characteristic of 19th-century landscape drawing. The composition captures the mountain's dramatic geology—stratified rock faces and glacial formations rendered with precise cross-hatching that models the steep terrain. Richards, a leading American landscape artist, used such studies as foundation material for finished paintings. The modest scale and working notation suggest this sheet served as direct observation from nature, a practice central to the Hudson River School's commitment to authentic topographical study before the photograph became standard reference.