Thomas Worthington Whittredge’s The Bay of Uri, Lake Lucerne was likely painted shortly after the artist left the Düsseldorf Academy in Germany to explore Europe. Accompanied by a few young American painters, Whittredge departed Düsseldorf, traveling up the Rhine into Switzerland and on to Italy, working his way down to Rome. On his trip, he discovered that the grand Swiss landscape was not suitable for his style of working, preferring simple scenes and subjects. However, he did linger in the quaint Swiss village of Brunnen, a picturesque and charming town situated on Lake Lucerne. Whittredge may have painted this work en plein air during a visit to Brunnen, where he occasionally retreated to escape the heat of Rome.