Top Event
To mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, the Alte Nationalgalerie is staging an exhibition from 19 March 2027 to 1 August 2027 dedicated to the painter, sculptor and inventor Arnold Böcklin, one of the most important artists of the Symbolist movement.
Image gallery
Arnold Böcklin, Die Toteninsel, 1883
Arnold Böcklin, Die Toteninsel (Erste Fassung), 1880
Arnold Böcklin, Die Toteninsel (Fünfte Fassung), 1886
Arnold Böcklin, Die Toteninsel, 1880
Alte Nationalgalerie
Vibrant colours, mythical creatures, eerie and fantastical landscapes, and haunting portraits: Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901) was a painter, sculptor and inventor – and remains both revered and controversial well beyond the 19th century. His work had a lasting impact on his contemporaries and has inspired artists from the worlds of painting, theatre and music to engage with his legacy in their own ways.
An encounter with one of the most important artists of Symbolism
Around 150 works offer an insight into his fascinating oeuvre and its varied reception history. In 1880, a patron commissioned ‘a picture to dream about’ from the painter, who was already very well known at the time, and received Böcklin’s most famous painting: The Isle of the Dead.
The artist painted five versions of this mystical motif between 1880 and 1886, and to this day these works rank among the most important of the 19th century. Four versions still exist today; the fifth was destroyed during the Second World War.
‘Böcklin. Beyond the Myth’ brings together for the first time the four surviving versions of his most famous motif, ‘The Isle of the Dead’, which are now housed in Basel, Berlin, Leipzig and New York. This is a sensation that is likely to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, as three of these significant paintings leave their collections only in exceptional circumstances and solely for this occasion. Even Böcklin himself never saw the works assembled in this way.
Bringing the four paintings together will allow us to examine their similarities, their distinctive features and their context. It will reveal how one of the most famous motifs in art history came into being, why it still holds such great significance today, and why it has been subject to such a complex history of reception.
- This exhibition was initiated by and organised in cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Basel. It is made possible by the FRIENDS of the National Gallery.
