View of Ischl from the West (Lauffen near Ischl)

Until the beginning of the 19th century, the sole significance of the little market town of Ischl had had been in the salt trade. In the second quarter of the century, however, its romantic, idyllic setting at the meeting-point of three valleys on the banks of the Traun and the Ischl, made it a focus for Austrian landscape painters. At around this time, the town – officially named Bad Ischl since 1906 – rose to become a prominent spa, visited by the imperial court, aristocracy and bourgeoisie. Soon a fashionable milieu grew up, with country houses, a theatre (1827), a pump room (1829–1839) and a casino (1840). Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830–1916) adopted Ischl as his summer residence.
The surrounding region remained rural, and painters such as Anton Schiffer did their best to capture the inimitable character of the landscape, as in this painting which, according to a note on the frame, shows "Lauffen" near Ischl.

Habersatter Thomas: Anton Schiffer, View of Ischl from the West. In: Ducke Astrid, Habersatter Thomas (Hg./Ed.): Stadt - Land - Berg. Salzburg und seine Umgebung. Town - Landscape - Mountain. Salzburg and surroundings. Residenzgalerie Salzburg. Salzburg 2022, p. 142, illus. p. 143