Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901)

Swiss artist

Arnold Böcklin was born in Basel on 16 October 1827. He was the son of a textile merchant. Böcklin became one of Switzerland's major 19th century artists.

Böcklin traveled

After training at the Basal Municipal School of Art and Düsseldorf Academy of Art, Arnold Böcklin went on a study trip through the Alps. He traveled from the Grisons to Lake Geneva in 1847.
In 1848 Arnold Böcklin was in Paris, where he was caught up in the confusion of the February Revolution. From 1850 to 1857 he was in Rome and it was in the mid-1850s that the first mythological figures featured in his Roman landscapes.

Italy

In the next years Arnold Böcklin worked in Basel, Hanover and Munich. Between 1860 and 1862 he was professor of landscape painting at the Weimar Academy of Art. He returned to Rome between 1862 and 1866 and then went back to Basel to work on fresco commissions. After three years in Munich, Arnold Böcklin settled in Florence until 1885. From there he went to Zurich, where he stayed until 1892, striking up a friendship with the author Gottfried Keller. Finally he moved back to Florence.
Arnold Böcklin died in San Domenico, Italy on 16 January 1901.

German Romans

Alongside Hans von Marées and Anselm Feuerbach, Arnold Böcklin is regarded as one of the "German Romans", whose art was inspired by the Romantics and German realism.
Arnold Böcklin developed a visual language based on a limited range of motifs. His great strength lay in the ability to depict fantastic and visionary ideas in a credible, realistic manner.