A member of the Munich Secession and co-founder, along with Max Liebermann, of the Berlin Secession, Engel first travelled to the so called Halligen islands of Oland und Gröde in 1892. From 1901 on he visited Föhr almost every summer, staying at Grethjens Gasthof in Alkersum and later running a studio in Nieblum. In depicting Föhr women in traditional costumes, typical Frisian parlours or plein-air landscapes indebted to impressionism, his paintings helped conserve a vanishing living environment that was perceived as “primordial” and “unadulterated”.