Arnold Bocklin was, with Hodler, the major Swiss painter of the 19th century, and he exerted a great influence on the German-speaking countries through the expression of a heightened Romanticism and poeticism.
He was trained in Germany, Flanders and Paris, and spent seven years in Rome (1850-57), where he transformed his early naturalistic landscapes, more or less in the manner of Corot, into symbolic subjects with figures epitomizing the mood of the landscape. In the 1860s he visited Pompeii, where the ancient Roman frescoes led him to attempt classical history subjects, often harsh in colour.
He was in Munich 1871-74, where he met Thoma, but, like other German artists of the period (e.g. his friends Feuerbach and Marees), he spent much of the rest of his life in Italy, where he died. The work by which he is best known, The Island of the Dead, was first painted when he was living in Florence (1874-85) and was repeated in many versions. It has a curiously haunted quality which can be felt even in the reproductions in elementary German grammars, where many people first see it: the same quality can be found in Pan (which also exists in several versions) and in some other landscapes.
Most of his works are in his native Basle, where the Museum has a frescoed staircase, and in Munich and other German museums. New York (Met. Mus.) has a good version of the The Island of the Dead, and there is a work in Washington (NG).
Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
Further Reading: Arnold Bocklin (1903)
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