Arnold Böcklin was the son of a merchant. His father was against him being an artist. But with the intervention of the poet Wilhelm Wackernagel, and he was able have his father send him to art school.

In 1845 he attended the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, where his teacher was Johann Wilhelm Schirmer.

Between 1847 and 1848 he travelled to Brussels, Antwerp, Switzerland and Paris. From the autumn of 1848 he worked in Basle, moving to Rome in 1850.

In 1853 he married Angela Pascucci, a young Italian girl from Rome. In 1860 he was appointed to the post of Professor at the Academy of Weima.

Two years later he returned to Rome to visit Naples and Pompeii and the frescos he discovered had a lasting influence on his technique and his future artistic production.

In autumn 1866 he started work on the fresco that was to decorate the main staircase of the Museum of Basle

From 1874-84 he lived in Florence, surrounded by disciples. During this period he produced his most controversial works, such as The Island of the Dead and The Holy Wood.

In 1895 he moved to his villa at San Domenico, near Fiesole. It was here that he lived the last years of his life, continuing to paint until his death on January 16th 1901.

He disliked giving titles to his pictures and declared that he painted in order to make people dream: "Just as it is poetry's task to express feelings, painting must provoke them too. A picture must give the spectator as much food for thought as a poem and must make the same kind of impression as a piece of music.."

"Who would ever have been able to anticipate the effect of music before having heard it? Painting should pervade the soul in the same way, and as long as it does not do this it is nothing more than a brainless handicraft."

"There is no end to the poetry of the beautiful."

Pan in the Reeds
1858
oil on canvas; 200×153 cm
Neue Pinakothek
Muenchen Germany

Self with Death
1872
oil on canvas
Staatliche Museen
Berlin, Germany

In the Sea.
oil on panel; 87×116 cm
Private collection

Island of the Dead
oil on canvas
Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY, US