Island of the Dead (third version)

The Island of the Dead is one of B�cklin’s most popular pictorial inventions. He achieved this effect by combining a few motifs into an impressive mood formula. The image motifs of island, water, castle or villa by the sea were already present in his work long before. But here they are, as it were, condensed into a worldview. The place depicted is eerie, the view through the stairs does not penetrate into the dark interior. The strict symmetry, the calm vertical and horizontal lines, the circular island surrounded by high rock walls, together with the magical lighting, create an atmosphere of the solemn and sublime, evoke the feeling of silence and rapture. The motionless surface of the water and the boat with the white wrapped figure behind the coffin add a melancholy tone.

This picture in Berlin is the third of five versions. It was commissioned by the art dealer Fritz Gurlitt in 1883. With business acumen, he commissioned Max Klinger to do an etching based on the work. It was this version that established the painting’s extraordinary fame in the late 19th century. Distributed in countless engravings and photographs, “Die Toteninsel” reflects the attitude to life of an entire era and has thus become a fin de si�cle image of identification.

The five versions of the painting are the following.

First version: 1880, oil on canvas, 111 x 155 cm, �ffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel.

Second version: 1880, oil on wood, 74 x 122 cm, Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Third version: 1883, oil on wood, 80 x 150 cm, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

Fourth version: 1884; oil on zinc, 81 x 151 cm, destroyed in 1945.

Fifth version: 1886, oil on wood, 80 x 150 cm, Museum der Bildenden K�nste, Leipzig.