Arnold Böcklin

Arnold Böcklin painted a dream world of classical myth: centaurs, nymphs, sea creatures and the god Pan, set in dark groves, rocky coasts and sunlit Italian landscapes. His mood swings from rowdy humour to deep melancholy, and death is never far away, most famously in Isle of the Dead, the rocky island of cypresses he painted in five versions between 1880 and 1886.

Born in Basel in 1827, he studied at the Düsseldorf Academy and then in Antwerp, Brussels and Paris before moving to Rome in 1850, where Italy became his lasting inspiration. He later lived in Florence and Zurich and died at Fiesole, near Florence, in 1901. Famous across German-speaking Europe in his lifetime, he influenced Giorgio de Chirico and the Surrealists. The Kunstmuseum Basel holds a major collection of his work.

Pan in the Reeds shows his gift for making myth feel part of real nature.