Rahn well represents the early Romantic period in middle European painting, a movement that had its parallel in the sturm und drang of contemporary literature in late eighteenth century Germany.  In this turbulent forest landscape, with its cascading torrents and mist-enveloped peaks, Rahn provides the link between the Scandinavian scenery of the Dutch seventeenth century painters Allart Everdingen and Jacob Ruisdael, and the art of Gaspar David Friedrich.

Despite its romantic atmosphere, it is worth noting that the careful execution of this scene recalls eighteenth century landscapes, and that it was executed within the lifetime of that great landscape painter of the ancien regime, Hubert Robert, who died in 1808.  Rahn’s landscape Around the Ruins of Habsburg is in the collection of the Belvedere, Vienna (inv.no.77).