Böcklin, Arnold

     * Basle, 19 Oct 1827; † San Domenico, nr Fiesole, 16 Jan 1901).
     Swiss-German painter. He was one of the most celebrated and influential artists in
     central Europe, particularly Germany and Switzerland, in the later 19th century,
     notable for his imaginative and idiosyncratic interpretation of themes from Classical
     mythology.


     1. Early landscapes and first mythological works, to 1859.

     In Basle, while still at school, Böcklin attended the Zeichenschule of Ludwig Adam
     Kelterborn 1811–78). He then trained 1845–7) at the Kunstakademie in
     Düsseldorf, where he studied principally in the landscape painting class of Johann
     Wilhelm Schirmer. Among Böcklin’s fellow students in Düsseldorf were Carl
     Friedrich Lessing and Anselm Feuerbach. Böcklin’s early works were largely
     landscapes marked by a strong sense of atmosphere akin to that in the work of
     Lessing. This was the case both in daytime scenes, such as the bleak, overcast
     Dolmen 1847; Basle, Kstmus.), and also in several dramatic nocturnal subjects,
     such as Ruined Castle 1847; Berlin, Tiergarten, N.G.).

            After travelling in Belgium, where he was impressed by early Netherlandish
     painting in public collections, and working briefly in Switzerland with the Swiss
     landscape painter Alexandre Calame, Böcklin went to Paris. He remained for
     several months, throughout the turbulence of the February and June revolutions of
     1848, studying the work of both Old Masters and contemporary artists. He felt
     particular admiration for the bravura and control of Thomas Couture’s large figure
     composition Romans of the Decadence 1847; Paris, Mus. d’Orsay) and for the
     treatment of light and colour in the landscapes of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. On
     his return to Basle Böcklin produced his first works with a distinctive personal
     style: a number of landscape scenes going beyond the essentially realist Düsseldorf
     tradition to suggest an understanding of nature as the embodiment of unseen
     supernatural powers. Typical of this approach are the curiously glowing sky and
     rearing silhouettes of the group of trees in Proud Firs 1849; Basle, Kstmus.).

            In February 1850 Böcklin travelled to Rome, where he soon came to know
     various members of the German artists’ group, the Tugendbund, spending the
     summer at Olevano in the Alban Hills outside Rome with Heinrich Dreber, Ludwig
     Thiersch 1825–1909) and others. Among Böcklin’s first paintings from Italy,
     Landscape from the Alban Hills 1851; Karlsruhe, Staatl. Ksthalle) clearly
     reveals the influence of Dreber’s landscape style in its combination of careful
     attention to detail with a certain lyricism of mood. A work from the next year,
     Roman Landscape 1852; New York, Brooklyn Mus.), is bolder in its response
     to the lush vegetation of the region and is significant in its addition of the imaginary
     figure of a bathing woman, in the manner of Karl Blechen and of Böcklin’s
     teacher, Schirmer.

            While maintaining strong links with Basle through his friend the historian Jacob
     Burckhardt, Böcklin strengthened his ties with Italy in 1853 by marrying an Italian,
     Angela Pasucci, the daughter of a papal guard. Böcklin continued to record the
     contemporary reality of life in Italy, as in Goatherd in the Campagna 1855;
     Winterthur, Stift. Oskar Reinhart), but he turned increasingly to themes from
     Classical mythology. From this time the imaginary rather than the observed is the
     dominant element in most of his work.

            Böcklin’s paintings embrace both specific episodes and anonymous but
     characteristic scenes. With the subject from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Syrinx
     Fleeing Pan 1854; Dresden, Gemäldegal. Neue Meister), an important aspect of
     Böcklin’s emerging style is seen in the strong contrast of cool and warm tones and
     of light and shadow to underline the theme of sexual conflict. In another erotically
     charged composition, Edge of a Wood with a Centaur and Nymph 1855;
     Berlin, Alte N.G.), figures and landscape are revealed as alternative embodiments
     of the same vital force. Though found shocking on its first exhibition, in Rome, this
     subject proved popular enough for Böcklin to produce a second version 1856;
     Göteborg, Kstmus.) for a collector in Hannover, Consul Carl Wilhelm Wedekind.

            Despite such success, Böcklin found himself in financial difficulties and was
     forced to paint scenes of Classical Roman sites for the tourist market. Encouraged
     by the possibility of a commission to decorate the dining-room of Wedekind’s
     Hannover house with scenes illustrating the theme of the Relations of Man to Fire
     1858; in situ; Hannover, Georgplatz; see Andree, 1977, pp. 230–36, pls
     110.1–5), Böcklin left Rome in the summer of 1857. The arrangement with
     Wedekind, however, ended in dissatisfaction with the work and disagreement
     concerning the fee, and Böcklin moved on to Munich.

            At the Munich Kunstverein in 1859 Böcklin exhibited the second version of a
     composition started in Rome, Pan in the Reeds 1856–8; Munich, Neue Pin., see
     fig. 1). The work encapsulates his approach to the world of Classical mythology in
     its compelling physical presence, its hint of melancholy and weariness and its
     element of mocking irony, in this case with the inclusion of a group of croaking
     frogs in the foreground. The picture was acquired by King Maximilian II of
     Bavaria, thus bestowing instant celebrity on the artist. Further reassurance came
     with an introduction to the important Munich art collector, Graf Adolf Friedrich
     von Schack, and an appointment to teach landscape painting at the Weimar
     Kunstschule.


     2. Expansion of repertory, 1860–74.

     Although not unhappy in the new post and in the company of artists who became
     and remained his friends, such as Franz von Lenbach and Reinhold Begas, Böcklin
     longed to return to Italy, and in 1862 he left again for Rome. During his second
     Italian period he paid less attention to landscape than to the example of the art of
     the past, making careful studies of both the Raphael stanze in the Vatican and of
     wall paintings at Pompeii, which he visited for the first time in 1863. A portrait of
     Böcklin’s wife, Angela Böcklin as a Muse 1863; Basle, Kstmus.), is set against
     a refined and sumptuous décor clearly influenced by Pompeian examples. The
     various versions of the composition Villa by the Sea e.g. 1864; Munich,
     Schack-Gal.) combine the Düsseldorf tradition of the atmospheric treatment of
     setting with the lessons of balance and simplicity derived from the example of
     antiquity and the High Renaissance. The haunting subject, to which Böcklin
     continued to return until the late 1870s, anticipates several aspects of his later
     composition the Island of the Dead.

            Böcklin went back to Basle in 1866 in order to carry out a commission for
     fresco and secco decorations for the staircase of the museum in Augustinergasse,
     now the Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde 1868–70; in situ). At the same
     period he also carried out several sculptural works, including six sandstone masks
     for the Basle Kunsthalle 1871; in situ). A particularly striking work from this time
     was Böcklin’s treatment of a religious theme, Mary Magdalene Bewailing the
     Dead Christ 1867–8; Basle, Kstmus.), notable for its lack of a sense of
     consolation and its relentless objectivity in the treatment of the uncontrolled sorrow
     of the woman.

            In 1870 Böcklin went briefly to Paris, where his picture Murderer Pursued
     by Furies 1870; Munich, Schack-Gal.) was exhibited. It is possible that he was
     hoping to establish himself in Paris, but with the advent of the Franco–Prussian
     War 1870–71) this idea became far less feasible and he returned to Basle. The
     war was reflected in a number of Böcklin’s paintings from this time, both scenes
     with a northern setting, such as the Ride of Death 1871; Munich, Schack-Gal.),
     and those with a Classical subject, such as Battle of the Centaurs e.g. 1872–3;
     Basle, Kstmus.), exhibited to great acclaim at the Weltausstellung in Vienna in
     1873.

            Böcklin moved again to Munich in 1871 and was close to artists in the circle
     around Wilhelm Leibl, particularly Hans Thoma, on whom his work had a strong
     influence. Two self-portraits from this period suggest a new degree of
     self-confidence: Self-portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle 1872; Berlin,
     Neue N.G.), inspired by a work by Hans Holbein ii) in the Alte Pinakothek but
     showing the artist at work and as if attentive to the apparition, and an idealized
     Self-portrait 1873; Hamburg, Ksthalle) posed against marble columns and a
     laurel bush. With the outbreak of cholera in Munich in 1874, the time seemed ripe
     for a return to Italy. Böcklin made his last sale to Graf von Schack, Triton and
     Nereid 1873–4; Munich, Schack-Gal.), one of the first of many scenes of
     mythological sea creatures in his oeuvre. He then rented a house in Florence and
     left Germany.


     3. Idealist and Symbolist works, 1875–84.

     Böcklin joined the Florentine circle of German artists and scholars that included
     the painter Hans von Marées, the sculptor Adolf von Hildebrand and the art
     historian Hugo von Tschudi. He now increasingly shared with many of this group a
     commitment to idealism in art, and his works from the following years reflect this in
     their marked element of artifice. This is especially notable in the religious
     composition Mourning at the Foot of the Cross 1876; Berlin, Neue N.G.),
     with its incongruously neat flowered hilltop setting and stiff figures, and above all in
     a large picture commissioned by the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Elysian Fields
     1877–8; untraced; see Andree, 1977, p. 401, pl. 320). The negative criticism
     that such works received in some quarters, in particular for their garish colour and
     their excess of detail, seems to have been taken into account by Böcklin in view of
     his generally more restrained and simpler compositions of the following years.

            From the late 1870s Böcklin’s fame drew a great many visitors to his
     Florentine studio, including the German Prince William, the future emperor William
     II. Among the more advantageous meetings of these years was that with the Berlin
     art dealer Fritz Gurlitt 1854–93), whose regular exhibitions of Böcklin’s work
     from 1880, in Berlin and then in Dresden, brought an assurance of sales and fame
     and thus of freedom from financial or professional insecurity. Böcklin’s marked
     independence from contemporary artistic developments was certainly further
     encouraged by this arrangement. A notable change in his working methods was
     the sharp increase during the 1880s and 1890s in his use of panel rather than
     canvas supports for his paintings.

            While convalescing on the island of Ischia after contracting influenza on a
     sketching trip to Naples, Böcklin seems first to have had the idea on which he
     based five versions of the composition the Island of the Dead 1880–86; two
     versions 1880, Basle, Kstmus., see fig. 2, and New York, Met.; one version
     1883, Berlin, Staatl. Museen, Neue N.G.; 1884, untraced; 1886, Leipzig, Mus.
     Bild. Kst.). The composition was initially devised in response to a request from
     Marie Berna later Gräfin von Oriola) for a picture to induce dreams; and the
     various versions were made on request from other enthusiasts. The uncertainty as
     to the precise subject of the work is as important in achieving its intended effect as
     is the anxiety induced by the image of the rocky mausoleum-island or of the figures
     in the small boat approaching it. Of all Böcklin’s works, this composition did most
     to secure an international revival of his popularity in the late 20th century.

            A similar combination of the imprecise and the monumental is found in many
     of Böcklin’s compositions from the early 1880s, for example the Coming of
     Spring 1880; Zurich, Ksthaus), notable for its paradoxically sombre mood, The
     Adventurer 1882; Bremen, Ksthalle), with its figure of the fearless mounted
     warrior setting off into the unknown, and the two versions of the Sacred Grove
     1882; Basle, Kstmus.; 1886; Hamburg, Ksthalle), with their suggestion of a
     secret rite carried out by mysterious, robed figures. Extreme simplicity also adds
     to the impact of one of Böcklin’s later treatments of a more specifically Classical
     theme, Odysseus and Calypso 1882; Basle, Kstmus.), where the use of tonal
     contrast between the male and female elements in the picture is exaggerated to an
     almost diagrammatic degree. A good deal of Böcklin’s energy in these years went,
     sometimes reluctantly, into reworking earlier compositions to meet market
     demand.


     4. Large-scale religious and mythological polyptychs, 1885–1901.

     In 1885, concerned for the education of his now large family, Böcklin returned to
     Switzerland, settling in Zurich where he had a studio built. While the title, the local
     setting and the emotive use of colour in a work such as Homecoming 1887; priv.
     col., see Andree, 1977, p. 477, pl. 406) suggest a positive response to this move,
     Böcklin’s most significant compositions from this time are more ambiguous. Look,
     the Meadow is Smiling 1887; Darmstadt, Hess. Landesmus.) quotes from the
     libretto of Richard Wagner’s music drama Parsifal in its title but sets female
     figures, recalling the work of Veronese, against a Tuscan landscape. The
     monumental Vita Somnium Breve ‘Life is but a short dream’, 1888; Basle,
     Kstmus.) combines figures from a northern Dance of Death with those from a
     classical idyll.

            Böcklin’s enduring technical prowess was evident in his ability to convey the
     sensual reality of increasingly bizarre imaginary worlds, as in his sumptuously
     coloured scene of mythological sea-creatures at rest, Calm Sea 1887; Berne,
     Kstmus.); but his preoccupations and his ambitions were clearly changing. An
     unassuaged longing for commissions for large-scale fresco work found an outlet in
     a series of large polyptychs on religious and mythological themes, the first of
     which, Legends of the Virgin Mary untraced; see Andree, 1977, p. 492, pl.
     424), was completed in 1890. Despite generous and enthusiastic recognition of his
     achievements from the authorities in Zurich, Böcklin longed to return again to Italy.
     At the end of 1890, with the onset of a period of illness which culminated in a
     stroke in 1892), he left Switzerland, going first to Viareggio and then moving
     south.

            While working on his second polyptych, Venus Genetrix 1891–5; Zurich,
     Ksthaus), a work notable for its serenity, Böcklin produced a number of paintings
     marked by irony and despair. In the Arbour 1891; Zurich, Ksthaus) shows an
     aged couple at the end of a walled garden, which they have entirely deadened in
     their zeal for symmetry. With the figures from Dante’s Divina Commedia, Paolo
     and Francesca 1893; Winterthur, Stift. Oskar Reinhart), Böcklin eschews the
     familiar love scene in favour of the medieval iconography of the subject and shows
     the couple drifting through the dark void of the Inferno.

            In a Self-portrait of 1893 commissioned by the Kunstmuseum in Basle in
     situ) Böcklin affirms his return to good health, showing himself at his easel, brush
     in hand, wearing fashionable, brightly coloured clothes. His popularity throughout
     German-speaking Europe reached an unprecedented level during the last ten years
     of his life, partly due to the publication of four volumes of reproductions of his
     works by Bruckmann in Munich. It was also during these years that Heinrich
     Alfred Schmid 1863–1951) embarked on the first catalogue raisonné of
     Böcklin’s work.

            In 1894 Böcklin acquired the Villa Bellagio in San Domenico near Fiesole.
     After repairs and some rebuilding, Böcklin and his son Carlo b 1870) carried out
     wall decorations in the style of those at Pompeii 1896; in situ; see Andree, 1977,
     pp. 514–15, pls 450.1–3), using the encaustic technique, in which they were
     instructed by ernest Berger b 1857). While Böcklin’s fame reached a peak with
     his 70th birthday celebrations in Switzerland and Germany, he himself expressed
     little enthusiasm for these. The works from this period, notably the two versions of
     War 1896; Dresden, Gemäldegal. Neue Meister; 1897; Zurich, Ksthaus) and the
     horrifying vision of universal destruction, The Plague 1898; Basle, Kstmus.),
     suggest a mind overcome with the prospect of imminent extinction.

            On Böcklin’s death in 1901 his work was celebrated as distinctly German in
     spirit, but his reputation declined swiftly after compelling negative criticism from the
     modernist and anti-nationalist Julius Meier-Graefe, writing in 1905. While
     appreciated for incidental qualities by the Surrealists and in particular by Giorgio
     de Chirico, and celebrated once more as a national asset in both Switzerland and
     Germany on the centenary of his birth, Böcklin did not again receive serious
     consideration until the 1960s and 1970s.

          BIBLIOGRAPHY 

          H. A. Schmid: Arnold Böcklin: Eine Auswahl der hervoragendsten Werke
          des Künstlers in Photogravüre, 4 vols Munich, 1892–1901)
          ——: Böcklins Leben und Schaffen Munich, 1902)
          ——: Verzeichnis der Werke Arnold Böcklins Munich, 1903)
          ——: ‘Meier-Graefe contra Böcklin’, Die Kunst: Mhft. Freie & Angewandte
          Kst, xi 1904–5), pp. 432–6
          A. J. Meier-Graefe: Der Fall Böcklin und die Lehre von den Einheiten
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