Arnold Boecklin

Boecklin, Arnold 

Born Oct. 16, 1827, in Basel, Switzerland; died Jan. 16, 1901, in San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy. Swiss painter.

Boecklin studied in Düsseldorf (1845–47) and worked in Basel, Munich, and Italy. Wishing to avoid depicting reality, he created an imaginary world in his pictures, often purposely mysterious. At first, he painted romantic landscapes with mythological figures; later, fantastic scenes with nymphs, sea monsters, and so on (Triton and Nereid, 1873–74). His later compositions (Island of the Dead, 1880, Museum of Art in Basel), in which artificial symbolism was combined with naturalistically authentic details, had an influence on German symbolism and Jugendstil. Boecklin’s pictures are painted in bright, harsh colors, mainly with tempera.

REFERENCE

Schmidt, G. Boecklin heute. Basel, 1951.