Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss painter, born in Basel in 1827, who died near Florence in 1901. He spent his life between Switzerland, Germany and Italy painting nymphs, tritons and graveyards, and he is remembered for one picture: Isle of the Dead, a white figure in a rowing boat gliding toward a rock crowded with cypresses. He painted it five times between 1880 and 1886, and prints of it ended up on walls across Europe.
The picture began with a request. In 1880 a widow named Marie Berna came to his studio in Florence, saw an unfinished canvas of an island, and asked him for a version in memory of her husband. At her request he added a coffin and a shrouded figure in the boat. Böcklin wrote to her that she would be able to dream herself into a world of dark shadows.
Cool Stories About Art is a newsletter to learn art the fun way.
Join 200,000+ readers and get:
10 new art stories / month
The entire archive of content (1,000+ articles)
Comment, ask questions, and chat with other readers
That is the picture the world knows, and Böcklin never called it Isle of the Dead. His own name for these paintings was Die Gräberinsel, Tomb Island.
The title that stuck came three years later. In 1883 the art dealer Fritz Gurlitt took a phrase from an 1880 letter Böcklin had written to his first patron and gave it to the third version. Böcklin did not choose it. A dealer did, and the market kept it.
As for what the painting means, Böcklin gave almost nothing away. He called it a dream picture, one so still that you would be awed by a knock on the door.
What You'll Discover
How he ended up in Rome.
What Death was playing in his ear.
Why the island was painted five times.
Who kept the island on their walls.
Which artists took his island.