Arnold Böcklin
Arnold Böcklin (16 October 1827 – 16 January 1901) was a Swiss Symbolist painter. He is best known for his five versions of the Isle of the Dead, which inspired works by several late-Romantic composers.
For the Art Nouveau typeface, see Arnold Böcklin (typeface).Biography[edit]
Arnold Böcklin was born in Basel. His father, Christian Frederick Böcklin (b. 1802), was descended from an old family of Schaffhausen, and engaged in the silk trade. His mother, Ursula Lippe, was a native of the same city.[1] Arnold studied at the Düsseldorf academy under Schirmer,[1] and became a friend of Anselm Feuerbach. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. Schirmer, who recognized in him a student of exceptional promise, sent him to Antwerp and Brussels, where he copied the works of Flemish and Dutch masters. Böcklin then went to Paris, worked at the Louvre, and painted several landscapes.[1]
After serving his time in the army, Böcklin set out for Rome in March 1850. The many sights of Rome were a fresh stimulus to his mind. These new influences brought allegorical and mythological figures into his compositions. In 1856 he returned to Munich, and remained there for four years.
His first fiancée died young. A second woman declined to marry. In Rome, he married Angela Rosa Lorenza Pascucci in 1853. The couple had fourteen children, but five died in childhood and another three died before Böcklin. He himself nearly succumbed to typhoid in 1859.[2]
Moonlit Landscape, 1849
Campania Landscape, 1851
Italian Landscape, 1858
The Shepherd's Lament, 1866
Idyll, 1866
Boy and Girl Picking Flowers, c.1866
Venus Anadyomene, 1872
The Muse Euterpe, 1872
Mourning under the Cross, 1876
The Elysian Fields, 1877
Honey Moon, 1878
Ocean Breakers (The Sound), 1879
Summer Day, 1881
Odysseus and Calypso, 1882
Will-o'-the-Wisp, 1882
Playing in the Waves, 1883
The Hermit, 1884
Self-portrait with the wine glass, 1885
The Homecoming, 1887
