Kolm Saigurn in the Rauris Valley with the Sonnblick

Friedrich Loos was a notable 19th-century Austrian landscape painter.

Loos gives a convincingly imposing picture of the high mountain landscape and the forces of nature within it. The way in which Loos zooms in on every detail of the terrain, using rich, luminous colours and clear-cut contrasts of light and shade, shows him as a pioneer of realist landscape painting. The portrait format allows the viewer to follow the hydrological cycle and the bold structure of the funicular railway, a sensational feat of engineering built in 1832/33 to serve the silver and gold mines. Driven by a water wheel close to the glacier, it was used for transporting the mined ore. The buildings at the end of the Rauris valley include the washing plant for the gold and silver.