Böcklin, Arnold

Böcklin or Boecklin, Arnold (both: är`nôlt bök`lēn), 1827–1901, Swiss painter. Most of his life was spent in Italy. With Feuerbach he led the group of painters known as "German Romans," who attempted to express an idealistic philosophy through art. His carefully constructed works are largely classical in theme and often theatrical in sentiment. Among his paintings are Island of the Dead (Metropolitan Mus.) and mythological frescoes (Basel).

Böcklin, Arnold

“Self-Portrait with Death as a Fiddler,” oil on canvas by Arnold Böcklin, 1872; in …

(credit: Courtesy of the Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Nationalgalerie, Berlin; photograph, Walter Steinkopf)

(born Oct. 16, 1827, Basel, Switz.—died Jan. 16, 1901, Fiesole, Italy) Swiss-born Italian painter. After studies and work in northern Europe and Paris, he won the patronage of the king of Bavaria with his mural Pan in the Bulrushes (1856–58). From 1858 to 1861 he taught at the Weimar Art School and executed mythological frescoes for the Public Art Collection in his native Basel. He settled in Italy, painting nymphs, satyrs, tritons, moody landscapes, and sinister allegories that presaged Symbolism and Surrealism. His later style was sombre, mystical, and morbid, as in his five versions of The Isle of the Dead (1880–86). Though most of his time was spent in Italy, he was the most influential artist in the German-speaking world in the late 19th century.