In the centre foreground is a boulder of granite and beyond it a block of gneiss with its characteristic curving folds, so admired by Ruskin. Every rock and pebble has been painted in intricate detail, following Ruskin's dictum that a small stone could be likened to a pearl or to 'a mountain in miniature' (E. T. Cook and A. D. O. Wedderburn (eds), 'The Works of John Ruskin', vol.IV, 1902–1912, pp.367–368). Despite its close attention to detail, the picture offers a sublime vision of nature. We are made to reflect on the enormous power of the glacier, a huge mass of steely-white snow and ice, pushing away stones and upending boulders that lie in its wake. It stretches back into a misty distance, where the tops of mountains are just visible, but where no man could survive for any length of time. Soon after Brett returned from Switzerland, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti saw 'The Glacier of Rosenlaui' in his studio and took it to show Ruskin. Ruskin was apparently delighted with the picture and conveyed 'expressions of pleasure and praise' (Brett Diary, 9 December 1856, quoted in Parris, p.147) to the artist.

Further reading: Leslie Parris (ed), 'The Pre-Raphaelites', exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.146–147, no.79, reproduced p.146. Elizabeth Prettejohn, 'The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites', London 2000, p.254, reproduced p.253, in colour. Christopher Wood, Victorian Art, London 1999, p.135, reproduced p.135, in colour. Frances Fowle December 2000