Riesengebirge (aus der Mappe „16 Ansichten tschechischer Landschaften 'Česka Krajiná'“)

The Riesengebirge — the Giant Mountains — form the highest part of the Bohemian-Silesian border, a mountain landscape beloved by German Romantic painters from Caspar David Friedrich onward. Engelmüller's 1902 view reclaims the Riesengebirge for Czech cultural geography at a moment when its identity was contested between German and Czech cultural nationalism. The mountains' dramatic character — broad plateaux, steep escarpments, distinctive rocky formations — had made them one of the most painted landscapes in Central Europe. The painting is at the Belvedere in Vienna.

The mountain landscape is treated with the broader, more atmospheric handling suited to high terrain: open skies, expansive views, tonal recession into distant ranges. Engelmüller uses a cooler, more silvery palette for the highlands than for the valley landscapes elsewhere in the portfolio.