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Arnold Böcklin

Born: Basel, 19 October 1827
Died: San Domenico, near Fiesole, 16 January 1901
Nationality: Swiss
Studies: 

Zaichenschule of Ludwig Adam Kelterborn; with Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf)

Career: 

1850 – works with the Tugendbund, a German artists’ group, outside Rome

1859 – exhibits Pan in the Reeds (1856-58, Neue Pinakothek, Munich) at Munich Kunstverein; painting purchased by Maximilian II (King of Bavaria); appointed landscape professor at Weimar Kunstschule

1866 – receives a commission for fresco decorations for the Augustinergasse (now Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde) in Basel

1870 – exhibits Murderer Pursued by Furies (Schack-Galerie, Munich) in Paris

1875 – moves to Florence

1880 – art dealer Fritz Gurlitt begins exhibiting Böcklin’s work regularly in Berlin and Dresden

1885 – settles in Zurich

1890 –returns to Italy

1893 – publication of reproductions of Böcklin’s work by Bruckmann in Munich

Travels

Belgium; Switzerland; Paris (1848; 1870); Rome (1850-57; 1862-66); Munich (1859; 1871); Florence (1875); Naples

Important Artworks: 

Self-Portrait with Death Playing a Violin, 1872 (Nationalgalerie, Berlin)

Odysseus and Calypso, 1883 (Kunstmuseum, Basel)

In the Sea, 1883 (The Art Institute of Chicago)

Sacred Grove, 1886 (Kunstmuseum, Basel)

The Plague, 1898 (Kunstmuseum, Basel)

Collectors

Consul Carl Wilhem Wedekind; Graf Adolf Friedrich von Schack