The backdrop of the scene in the painting Castle by the River in Winter may be Dornbach Castle in the district of Spittal an der Drau in Carinthia, Austria. Namely, Pernhart’s drawing of it has been preserved; however, it may simply be a fantasy depiction of a winter idyll modelled on 17th century Dutch painters who were rediscovered in Pernhart’s time and began to be included in public collections. From Paris, where forgotten Dutch winter motifs were restored and exhibited under the guidance of the painter Georges Michel (1763−1843), interest in winter vedute and landscapes spread to Vienna on the initiative of the Academy professor Franz Steinfeld (1787−1868). The present painting also features staffage figures – skaters and walkers on the frozen river surface – which, contrary to Dutch artists, 19th-century painters began to abandon because they were primarily interested in the beauty of nature in snow. Following old models, they also adopted a low perspective, in which as many as four-fifths of the painted canvas is dedicated to the sky.