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

The Böhmisches Mittelgebirge — the Bohemian Central Highlands — is a region of volcanic hills and broad valleys in northern Bohemia, with a landscape character quite distinct from the more celebrated Bohemian highlands to the south. Engelmüller's view from his 1902 portfolio was an act of visual assertion: claiming the regional landscape as something worth painting, documenting, and celebrating as part of Czech cultural patrimony. The volcanic hills of the Mittelgebirge had attracted landscape painters from the early Romantic period, and Engelmüller was placing himself within that tradition while reorienting it toward Czech national feeling.

The volcanic hills create a distinctively shaped skyline different from the forested plateaux of other Czech landscapes. Engelmüller organizes the composition around the characteristic profile of the hills, using atmospheric recession to suggest the broad sweep of the region. The palette is naturalistic with cool northern tones.