Island of the Dead (second version)

B�cklin’s patron Marie Berna commissioned this painting in 1880 as a memorial to her late husband. It is based on an unfinished canvas that she saw in the artist’s studio in Florence; at her request, he added the draped coffin and the shrouded figure to the rowboat in the foreground. B�cklin later wrote to her, “you will be able to dream yourself into the world of dark shadows.” Between 1883 and 1886, he painted three additional versions of the subject, each slightly different. 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.

The scene was widely reproduced and inspired numerous artists, including the composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and the Surrealist painter Salvador Dal�.