Arnold Böcklin

Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss painter who spent much of his working life in Italy and Germany. He painted landscapes peopled with nymphs, centaurs, sea creatures and figures from classical myth, with a dark, brooding mood that made him one of the leading Symbolists. His best-known work, Isle of the Dead, exists in five versions, in Basel, New York, Leipzig and Berlin among others, and was hugely popular as a print. His work influenced the Surrealists, and he died at his villa at Fiesole near Florence.