Built in the 1730s for Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, the palace-castle in Podhorce impressed from the outset with its architectural grandeur and rich furnishings. With time, it became even more famous thanks to its successive eminent owners. As the property of the Sobieski family, it received visits from King Jan III. The description of the French traveller François Paul D'Alerac, who visited the residence with the sovereign's court, comes from that time, declaring it to be "undoubtedly the most beautiful building in Poland, and even in any other country it would be one of the most extraordinary edifices". One of the next owners, Waclaw Rzewuski, a hetman, writer and patron of the arts, made the castle his main residence, not only expanding it, but also setting up an impressive library, an art gallery and even a theatre. In the early 19th century, the building still belonged to the Rzewuski family, including the grandson and namesake of the Hetman, the famous 'Emir', but it was slowly declining. Despite this, during the period of the Partitions of Poland, it was surrounded by the legend of a place associated with the Lion of Lechistan and was regarded as one of the most important monuments of Polishness in Eastern Galicia.

It is not surprising, therefore, that its depiction, along with that of the castle in Olesko, also associated with Jan III Sobieski, was among the 35 views produced in lithographic technique and published in the 1823 album 'Zbiór najpiękniejszych i najinteresowniejszych okolic w Galicji'. This publication, published by the Piller company, is the first example in Lviv of the "countryside albums" that were popular throughout Europe at the time. The drawings for it were provided by Antoni Lange, who had arrived in the city from Vienna a dozen years earlier to take up a position as a theatre decorator. He created the scenery for a number of plays under the direction of Jan Nepomucen Kamiński, but he also collaborated with local printmakers and painted pictures, specialising in landscape themes. Initially, in accordance with the tendencies adopted in Viennese circles, he created mainly imaginative idealistic landscapes imbued with a poetic and sentimental atmosphere. However, he soon succumbed to a fascination with the landscapes of his new homeland, as accounts from the period indicate. He began to wander the nearer and more distant environs of Lviv, noting every more recognisable sight, which he later transferred to canvas, cardboard or lithographic stone. The result of these explorations is the series produced in collaboration with Piotr Piller, whose aim, apart from purely artistic considerations, was also undoubtedly to preserve the memory of places and monuments that build up the local identity and strengthen the national pride of Poles.

Antoni Lange returned to the motif of the Podhorce castle many years later, towards the end of his life, painting an oil painting which now belongs to the collection of the Lviv Historical Museum. Apparently, at this time, the artist's state of health prevented him from travelling further around the country. Perhaps this motivated him to transfer the compositions included in his prints (not only his own, as his paintings repeating motifs from the album of Jan Nepomucen Głowacki are also known) to canvas. Whatever the reasons, however, it is certain that in 1839 the painter produced as many as four views of the famous castles of the former Republic: Odrzykon, Pieskowa Skała, Olesko and precisely Podhorzec. This theme was one of the main topoi of the Romantic era, enjoying popularity in the art of all European countries, evoking the mood of mystery and horror sought at the time. In Polish culture, it gained additional interpretations with nationalistic content, bearing witness to the country's former glory.

The painting with a view of Podhorzec repeats the details of the earlier lithograph quite closely. In the far background, the silhouette of the castle with its characteristic bastions at the corners is visible in the distance. The greater part of the composition is occupied by a vast, undulating landscape with rural buildings. In the lower part of the slope on which the residence overlooks, the artist has depicted a harvest in progress, with a large group of peasants working under the watchful eye of an overseer riding by on horseback. In the foreground, on the edge of a country road, in the shade of a tree, two figures in country clothes stop. This compositional approach, with the title motif shifted into the background and a wide perspective opening up to the picturesqueness of nature, was often used by Lange. It can be interpreted as an expression of an interest primarily in the local landscape, in which famous architectural objects are only an iconographic pretext and allow for the topographical identification of a place. Performing ordinary, everyday activities, the staffage figures not only enliven the view but, again, add to the local colour. Although, iconographically, Lange's album is linked to the area of his new, small artist's homeland, it should be noted that, in terms of form, the artist used the typical international conventions of the period, known for example from the work of the most famous Viennese Biedermeier landscape painter Jakob Alta, who produced hundreds of views of these famous and lesser-known areas of the Austrian Empire, often using a similar scheme with the main motif relegated to the distance and elaborate genre staffage. With that said, Lange's introduction of the theme of physical farm work, rather than idyllic content, undoubtedly represented a bold innovation at the time.

In the memories of his contemporaries, including Wincenty Pol, Lange went down as an artist who was constantly fascinated by the beauty of the Galician landscape and the local culture. Although he was a newcomer, he became permanently attached to Lviv, remaining in the city until his death. He gained the reputation of the greatest landscape painter of his time, the father of Lviv landscape painting, who was the first to include in his paintings, as well as in his graphics, evidence of the picturesque beauty of the surrounding countryside and a visual documentation of the monuments important for Polish culture and history.