In 1845 Arnold Böcklin enrolled for two years at the Düsseldorf academy in the landscape class of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807-1863). Böcklin traveled to Brussels and Antwerp, where he admired Flemish paintings, and then continued his studies with the landscape painter Alexandre Calame (1810-1864) in Geneva. In Paris during the tumultuous February and June Revolutions of 1848, Böcklin copied Old Master paintings at the Louvre. Couture's (q.v.) Romans of the Decadence (1847, Musée d'Orsay, Paris) made a strong impression on him, as did Corot's (q.v.) atmospheric treat-ment of landscapes. After a short stay in Basel, Böcklin moved to Rome in 1850 and married Angela Pascucci three years later. In 1857 he returned via Basel to Hannover, where he decorated the dining room in the Wedekind mansion (1858). He hoped this commission would relieve his financial burdens, but Wedekind was far from pleased with the result. Böcklin's first major success occurred when he exhibited Pan in the Reeds (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich) in 1859 in Munich. King Ludwig I bought the work, and soon after Böcklin started teaching in Weimar (1860-62). In Munich he met Baron von Schack, who became one of his most important supporters. From 1862 through 1866 he lived in Rome and while there was in touch with Anselm Feuerbach (1829-1880) and Hans von Marées (1837-1887). The trio formed the nucleus of the late-nineteenth-century "Deutschrömer" (German Romans) who continued a tradition of German artists working in Italy using a classical vocabulary. Böcklin moved repeatedly, living in Basel (1866-71), Munich (1871-74), Florence (1874-85), and Zurich (1885-92) until he finally settled in Florence in 1892. In Basel he painted the murals for the Museum an der Augustinergasse (1868-70); Jacob Burckhardt's criticism of these works ended their close friendship. At the end of his career he had built a solid reputation and was praised as a distinctively German artist. His seven-tieth birthday was celebrated with exhibitions in Basel and Berlin. With other movements such as impressionism and modernism taking over, however, the esteem for his art soon diminished after his death in 1901. Except for the attention of artists like Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) and other surrealists, recognition of Böcklin's work did not reappear until the second half of the twentieth century. (For a self-portrait of Böcklin, see Blanche, fig. 11a.)
