In this 1883 iteration of Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead series, a familiar rowboat carrying a wrapped figure and coffin cuts across still water toward a rocky islet. The island’s high cliffs and solemn symmetry amplify a sense of quiet inevitability: a place of no return. The spare composition and hushed palette set this version apart as a fulcrum between Böcklin’s nocturnal depictions and his more austere versions. Commissioned in 1883 by art dealer Fritz Gurlitt, this variation helped establish the work’s fin-de-siècle reputation through widely circulated engravings and prints. 

Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss Symbolist painter known for dreamlike landscapes and mythic themes. Rejecting strict realism, he used imagined settings to explore ideas of mortality, memory, and the unseen. His work had a lasting influence on Symbolist art and later modern movements, particularly for its emphasis on mood over narrative.

Product Details: Cotton and polyester canvas on Radiata pine wood frame sourced from renewable forests. Includes back mounting.

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To offer a broad range of sizes, each image is carefully adapted to its canvas dimensions. As a result, slight variations in composition may occur, and some reproductions may differ subtly from the original work.

Our canvases feature mirrored edges to create a seamless wrap-around effect without altering the original image. This effect is more noticeable on smaller canvas sizes.