Английская Википедия:Isle of the Dead (painting)

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Файл:Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel I (Basel, Kunstmuseum).jpg
Isle of the Dead: "Basel" version, 1880
Файл:Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel II (Metropolitan Museum of Art).jpg
Isle of the Dead: "New York" version, 1880
Файл:Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel III (Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin).jpg
Isle of the Dead: Third version, 1883
Файл:Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel - Version 4 sw.jpg
Isle of the Dead: Fourth version, 1884 (black-and-white photograph)
Файл:Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel V (Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig).jpg
Isle of the Dead: Fifth version, 1886

Isle of the Dead (Шаблон:Lang-de) is the best-known painting of Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901). Prints were very popular in central Europe in the early 20th century—Vladimir Nabokov observed in his 1936 novel Despair that they could be "found in every Berlin home".[1]

Böcklin produced several different versions of the painting between 1880 and 1886, which today are exhibited in Basel, New York City, Berlin, and Leipzig. A sixth version, begun in autumn 1900 with the help of Böcklin's son Carlo Böcklin and finished by Carlo in 1901, is part of the Hermitage Museum's collection in Saint Petersburg.

Description and meaning

All versions of Isle of the Dead depict a desolate and rocky islet seen across an expanse of dark water. A small rowing boat is just arriving at a water gate and seawall on shore.[2] An oarsman maneuvers the boat from the stern. In the bow, facing the gate, is a standing figure clad entirely in white. Just ahead of the figure is a white, festooned object commonly interpreted as a coffin. The tiny islet is dominated by a dense grove of tall, dark cypress trees—associated by long-standing tradition with cemeteries and mourning—which is closely hemmed in by precipitous cliffs. Furthering the funerary theme are what appear to be sepulchral portals and windows on the rock faces.

Böcklin himself provided no public explanation as to the meaning of the painting, though he did describe it as "a dream picture: it must produce such a stillness that one would be awed by a knock on the door".[3][4] The title, which was conferred upon it by the art dealer Fritz Gurlitt in 1883, was not specified by Böcklin, though it does derive from a phrase in an 1880 letter he sent to the painting's original commissioner.[5] Not knowing the history of the early versions of the painting (see below), many observers have interpreted the oarsman as representing the boatman Charon, who ferried souls to the underworld in Greek mythology. The water would then be either the River Styx or the River Acheron, and his white-clad passenger a recently deceased soul transiting to the afterlife.

Origins and inspiration

Файл:English Cemetery, Florence.jpg
English Cemetery, Florence
Файл:Pontikonisi Island 05-06-06.jpg
Greek island Pontikonisi, near Corfu, was a possible inspiration for the painting
Файл:Ostrvo Sveti Đorđe (Island of Saint George) - Bay of Kotor, Montenegro - 28 July 2010 - (1).jpg
Montenegrin island Saint George near Perast, is another likely contender as the inspiration for the painting

Isle of the Dead evokes, in part, the English Cemetery in Florence, Italy, where the first three versions were painted. The cemetery was close to Böcklin's studio and was also where his infant daughter Maria was buried. (In all, Böcklin lost 8 of his 14 children.)

The model for the rocky islet was perhaps Pontikonisi, a small, lush island near Corfu, which is adorned with a small chapel amid a cypress grove,[6] perhaps in combination with the mysterious rocky island of Strombolicchio near the famous volcano Stromboli, Sicily. (Another less likely candidate is the island of Ponza in the Tyrrhenian Sea.)

Versions

Böcklin completed the first version of the painting in May 1880 for his patron Alexander Günther, but kept it himself. In April 1880, while the painting was in progress, Böcklin's Florence studio had been visited by Marie Berna, née Christ (widow of financier Dr. Georg von Berna (1836–1865) and soon-to-be wife of the German politician Waldemar, Count of Oriola (1854–1910)). She was struck by the first version of this "dream image" (now in the Kunstmuseum Basel), which sat half completed on the easel, so Böcklin painted a smaller version on wood for her (now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York City). At Berna's request, he added the coffin and female figure, in allusion to her husband's death from diphtheria years earlier. Subsequently, he added these elements to the earlier painting. He called these works Шаблон:Lang ("Tomb Island").[7] (Sometimes the "Basel" version is credited as the first one, sometimes the "New York".) It was acquired by the Gottfried Keller-Stiftung in 1920.[8]

The third version was painted in 1883 for Böcklin's dealer Fritz Gurlitt. Beginning with this version, one of the burial chambers in the rocks on the right bears Böcklin's own initials: "A.B." In 1933, this version was put up for sale, and noted Böcklin admirer Adolf Hitler acquired it. He hung it first at the Berghof in Obersalzberg and then, after 1940, in the New Reich Chancellery in Berlin. It is now at the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

Financial imperatives resulted in a fourth version in 1884, which was ultimately acquired by the entrepreneur and art collector Baron Heinrich Thyssen and hung at his Berliner Bank subsidiary. It was burned after a bomb attack during World War II and survives only as a black-and-white photograph.

A fifth version was commissioned in 1886 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig, where it still hangs.

Файл:Böcklin - Die Lebensinsel -1888.jpeg
Isle of Life, 1888

In 1888, Böcklin created a painting called Шаблон:Lang ("Isle of Life"). Probably intended as an antipole to the Isle of the Dead, it also shows a small island, but with all signs of joy and life. Together with the first version of the Isle of the Dead, this painting is part of the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel.

A sixth version, allegedly created in 1901 and acquired in 2022 from a private collection, can be found at the State Hermitage (General Staff building) in Saint Petersburg. It bears the signatures A. Böcklin invenit ("devised by A. Böcklin") and Carlo Böcklin fecit 1901 ("executed by Carlo Böcklin 1901"),[9] and can therefore be assumed to be the version mentioned by the Thieme-Becker biographical dictionary which was started by Arnold Böcklin together with Carlo in autumn 1900.[9]

Versions

  1. May 1880—Oil on canvas; 111 × 155 cm; Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Kunstmuseum, Basel.
  2. June 1880—Oil on board; 74 × 122 cm; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Reisinger Fund, New York.
  3. 1883—Oil on board; 80 × 150 cm; Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
  4. 1884—Oil on copper; 81 × 151 cm; destroyed in Berlin during World War II.
  5. 1886—Oil on board; 80 × 150 cm; Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig.
  6. (with Carlo Böcklin) 1901-Oil on canvas, Hermitage (General Staff building), Saint Petersburg.

Admirers

The painting has attracted a wide variety of admirers. Freud kept a reproduction in his office; Lenin had one above his bed; Hitler bought one of the originals. Vladimir Nabokov wrote that reproductions of the painting could be “found in every Berlin home”.[10]

Works inspired by Isle of the Dead

Шаблон:More citations neededШаблон:In popular culture

Paintings

Art

  • At the OpenArt 2022 exhibit in Örebro, Sweden, a fifteen metre long and seven metre high mixed-media sculpture by artist Henrik Jonsson was exhibited. The sculpture is based upon Böcklin's paintings.[14]

Drama

Theatre

  • August Strindberg's play The Ghost Sonata (1907) ends with the image of Isle of the Dead accompanied by melancholy music. It was one of Strindberg's favourite pictures.

Ballet

Film

Television

  • Böcklin's painting was used in season 5 episode 3 of Pretty Little Liars ("Surfing the Aftershocks"), mysteriously affecting one of the main characters.
  • In the manga and anime series Kuroshitsuji, is shown a place called "Island of Death", described as a sanctuary for demons. It is also the designated area to commence a formal duel between individuals of the said race.
  • The painting is featured in the Netflix comedy anime series Neo Yokio, in which the characters briefly magically enter the painting itself.

Literature

  • In J. G. Ballard's 1966 novel The Crystal World, Böcklin's second version of the painting is invoked to describe the gloom of the opening scene at Port Matarre.
  • Roger Zelazny used the picture as an inspiration for the meeting place of two mythological beings (one of them the alter-ego of the protagonist, Francis Sandow) in his novel Isle of the Dead (1969).[11] In-universe, Sandow references the painting as he recollects having created the world where it lies.
  • Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles (1995–1997) associates Dorset's Isle of Portland with the painting's isle. It is described as a place of internal exile and damnation. The causeway that almost links the real-life island to the mainland was supposed to be guarded to keep the dead (including the criminally insane) from crossing the Fleet and escaping back into Britain.
  • Graphic novel Ile des morts (text: Thomas Mosdi, drawings: Guillaume Sorel) has the pictures playing a key role in its gothic, Lovecraftian story.
  • Gerhard Meier's 1979 novel Isle of the Dead (Toteninsel) references Böcklin's painting.

Music

Classical composers

Pop music

  • The Swedish neoclassical band Arcana used an image of Isle of the Dead on the cover of their debut album Dark Age of Reason (1996).
  • An album by Harald Blüchel was named after the paintingШаблон:Snd Die Toteninsel (Zauberberg-Trilogie Teil 1) (2006). The third version of the painting is shown on the cover of this album.
  • The heavy metal band Atlantean Kodex used Die Toteninsel (Version III) as a cover for their first full-length album, The Golden Bough (October 2010).
  • American songwriter and singer Rykarda Parasol wrote her song "Island of the Dead (Oh Mi, Oh My)" for the Amsterdam Van Gogh Museum's exhibition Dreams of nature (2012), where the fifth version of the painting was on show. The song, together with Rachmaninoff's piece, was possible to listen to while watching the painting.[22] The song is on Parasol's 2013 album Against the Sun.[23]
  • French blackgaze band Alcest recorded a song, "L'Île Des Morts," inspired by the paintings, for their album Spiritual Instinct, released October 25, 2019.
  • The Spanish/American rock band Alfonso Cronopio Trio (also known as A.C.T.) led by Alfonso Cronopio (founder of the Spanish 80s hardcore band TDeK) released the song "Pagando al barquero" in 2015. The song itself as well as the music video, are inspired in the Die Toteninsel painting.
  • Flowers by Hana Hope for the Fate/Grand Order Memorial Movie has a depiction of the titular isle as part of the intro.

Video games

The German survival horror video game "SIGNALIS" by rose-engine studio references all versions of the painting[24] several times, as it plays a crucial role in understanding the relationship between the main character and her lover.

In a promotional video for the Japanese mobile role-playing game "Fate/Grand Order", a depiction of the Isle of the Dead can be seen alongside Artoria Pendragon.[25]

See also

References

  1. Nabokov, Vladimir (1936; English translations 1937, 1965), Despair, p. 56.
  2. That the boaters are arriving at, and not departing from, the island is an assumption. The oarsman is positioned to row away from the shore, but in some versions the ripples of the boat's wake suggest that they are moving forward. Hubert, Locher (2004), "Arnold Böcklin: Die Toteninsel. Traumbild des 19. Jahrhunderts"; In: Kunsthistorische Arbeitsblätter [Translation: "Arnold Böcklin: The Isle of the Dead; Dream Image of the 19th Century"; In: Art History Worksheets], Zeitschrift für Studium und Hochschulkontakt; Issue 7/8, p. 71.
  3. Culshaw, John (1949), Rachmaninov: The Man and his Music, p. 73.
  4. To Marie Berna he wrote on 29 June 1880: "Шаблон:Lang"
  5. Upon completing Alexander Günther’s version, Böcklin sent him a letter saying that "finally with the Toteninsel finished I think it will make quite the impression" ("Шаблон:Lang".)
  6. Harrison, Max (2005), Rachmaninoff, Continuum International Publishing Group, p. 159.
  7. The artist apparently used this title for the rest his life, as indicated by a congratulatory telegram on the occasion of the Count's 70th birthday (1897) in which the artist refers to "Шаблон:Lang" ("the lucky owner of 'Tomb IslandШаблон:'").
  8. Шаблон:Cite web
  9. 9,0 9,1 Шаблон:Cite web
  10. 10,0 10,1 Essay by Alastair Macaulay, December 2021, accessed 25 January 2022.
  11. 11,0 11,1 11,2 11,3 11,4 11,5 Шаблон:Cite web
  12. Шаблон:Cite book
  13. Шаблон:Cite web
  14. Шаблон:Cite web
  15. Шаблон:Cite book
  16. The Tales of Hoffmann matte.
  17. The Tales of Hoffmann set.
  18. Шаблон:Cite web
  19. Шаблон:Cite book
  20. Шаблон:Cite book
  21. List of Compositions at kristianomaronnes.com. Шаблон:Webarchive
  22. Шаблон:Cite web
  23. Шаблон:Cite web
  24. Шаблон:Cite news
  25. Шаблон:Citation
  • Eva Perón en la isla de los muertos
  • Morris, Gary (2009). Action!: Interviews with Directors from Classical Hollywood to Contemporary Iran (en inglés). Anthem Press. p. 216.

External links

Шаблон:Arnold Böcklin