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Oil on canvas Switzerland, 1863 Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901) - Swiss painter of Symbolism Verso inscribed on the canvas 'A. Böcklin' Cat. Rais.: R. Andree, Arnold Böcklin. Die Gemälde, Basel/München 1977 and 1998, No. 167 Inventoried in the Swiss Institute for Art History Exhibited in the Kunstmuseum Basel in the Arnold Böcklin Ausstellung in 1977 as well as described and illustrated in the catalogue Overall dimensions, framed: 39 x 33.6 cm, dimensions of the stretcher frame: 19.6 x 13.8 cm Provenance: Family of the artist, 1946 Kunsthandlung Weder, von Selve family, most recently German Private Collection Arnold Böcklin belongs next to Lovis Corinth, Max Klinger, and Ferdinand Hodler to the main representatives of Symbolism; the auction record for one of his paintings is currently set at 970,000 Euro This painting in oil by the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin shows his wife at the age of 27. Böcklin married the young Roman Angela Pascucci in 1853 and portrayed her again and again ever since their marriage. Its intimacy and intensity let this small painting stand out from the other portraits of Böcklin's wife. Böcklin shows his young wife in a black veil, a subject that he had already used in an earlier portrait from 1854. The artist uses the veil to frame the face and to distinctively separate it from the olive green background. The facial features of the depicted are even and soft light accentuates the shape her face. In contrary to the portrait from ten years before, Angela Böcklin looks rather serious and pensive, this impression is underlined by the black veil. The small painting has an immaculate provenance. It comes directly from the artist's heirs and was sold in 1946 in the art gallery Weder in Luzern. Here, Else von Selve, wife of Walther von Selve, bought it. The painting stayed in the possession of the von Selve family that lent it to the art museum in Basel in 1977. Here it was part of the exhibition 'Arnold Böcklin, Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Plastiken' (Arnold Böcklin, Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures) and is mentioned and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue (Cat. No. 65, p. 173). It is also mentioned and illustrated in the catalogue raisonné by Rolf Andree from 1977 (p. 277, No. 167). The small painting is in a condition befitting its age. The colour layer has been protected by a varnish, beneath which some large colour touch-ups can be seen, mainly in the background and in the veil. The canvas has been waxed for stabilization. The canvas is inscribed on the back 'A. Böcklin'. There are two old inventory numbers on the back of the stretcher frame. Two labels from the Art Museum in Basel are on the frame, one of them indicating that the painting was lent by Dr. Winzenried-v. Selve to the Böcklin exhibition in 1977. The frame is a broad wooden frame in quite good condition with a plaque on the front with the inscription „1094 Arnold Böcklin". The overall dimensions, framed, are 39 x 33.6 cm, the dimensions of the stretcher frame are 19.6 x 13.8 cm. Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901) Arnold Böcklin was a painter, whose emotional landscapes and dark allegories influenced the artists of the 19th Century and forerun the Symbolism of the 20th Century of the metaphysical and surrealist artists. Böcklin studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf from 1845 to 47 and travelled to Belgium, France and the Netherlands afterwards. For a short time he worked with the artist Johann Gottfried Steffan; he then moved to Rome in 1850, where he stayed for seven years and married his wife Angela. He was named a professor at the Grand Ducal Saxonian Art School in Weimar and stayed there from 1860 to 62, but later moved to Munich, Florence and Hottingen near Zurich. From 1892 on, he lived near Florence where he finally decided to settle for the rest of his life. During the last periods of his creativity he became much more subjective in style, with fantabulous creatures or themes inspired by dark allegories, like the five versions of 'The Island of the Death' (1880) exemplify. Wraithlike scenes like in 'Odysseus and Calypso' (1883), and 'The Pest' (1898) show the morbid character of Böcklin's Symbolism. Works by Arnold Böcklin are held by the collections of major international art museums, like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the National Gallery in London, the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, the State Museums of Florence and the Kunsthaus Zurich.