View of Sarmingstein on the Danube, 1511

Albrecht Altdorfer was the principal figure of the so-called Danube School, the group of early 16th-century artists working along the Danube in Bavaria and Austria. This view, with a river flowing among high mountains, represents Sarmingstein, a settlement on the Danube in Austria. Along with some drawings by Albrecht Dürer and Wolfgang Huber, this composition is a milestone in art history, both as an early independent landscape, and as one of the first portrayals of an existing geographical location. The scene is viewed from an imaginary point above the Danube, suggesting that the drawing was not made in situ but from memory.