Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Arnold Böcklin

Arnold Böcklin (16 October 1827 – 16 January 1901) was a symbolist Swiss painter.Children Carving May Flutes

Considered one of the most important visual artists of the 19th century in Europe, Böcklin was one of the main representatives of German Symbolism, which broke with the dominant academic painting and the prevailing naturalism of the second half of the 19th century.Fight on a Bridge

Influenced by Romanticism, Böcklin’s use of imagery derived from mythology and legend and often overlapped with the aesthetic of the Pre-Raphaelites.Idyll

Many of his paintings are imaginative interpretations of the classical world.Centaur in the Village Blacksmith’s Shop

Böcklin was one of the most successful modern artists of the late nineteenth century in terms of his popularity with the general public, taking advantage of a new market for prints and reproductions of paintings in Germany around that time.

His art often portrays mythological subjects in settings involving classical architecture, often allegorically exploring death and mortality in the context of a strange fantasy world.Faun Whistling to a Blackbird

While other painters of his era experimented with ever more pronounced forms of abstraction and stylistic experiment, Böcklin immersed himself in the history of painting from the Renaissance onwards, drawn to all that was dramatic and extravagant.Meerestille Calm Sea

His paintings certainly had the mass popular appeal. but they also became a touchstone for many modern artists, particularly those interested in combining naturalistic representation with bizarre subject matter.The Isle of the Dead