BOCKLIN, Willi, ARNOLD (187.1901). A Swiss landscape painter. Ile was born in Basel, and studied in Diisseldorf (under Schirmer), in Brussels, Paris, and Rome. Ile returned to Ger many in 1856, and lived in Hanover, and then in Munich. where Count Schack, afterwards his chief patron, was first attracted by his talent. In 1860 he was appointed professor at the newly founded art school in Weimar, but resigned in 1862 to revisit Italy, whence in 180G he returned to his native Basel. In 1871-74 he was again in :Munich, then made Florence his home until 1885, and returned there in 1892, having in the mean while resided in Zurich. Although an artist of the highest rank, he was understood by only a few, was often ridiculed even by his fellow art ists, and never became popular. Endowed with wonderful creative power and a grandly pictur esque imagination, he painted only what poetic ally interested and inspired him, caring little for the public, and while fantastic and sensa tional in the choice of his subjects, was always original in his design and fascinating in his manner of painting. Notable for his glorious color-tones and poetic apprehension. he was an
exceptionally fine delineator of southern na ture, but in his figures only too often seemed to be impelled by the wish to represent the eternal contrast between beauty and ugliness. Hence the most perfect and enjoyable of his creations are those in which the landscape por tion preponderates and his landscapes pure and simple. Some of his most noteworthy pic tures are: "Castle by the Sea Surprised by Corsairs." "Chase of Diana." both in Basel scum; "Venus Reposing," 'Pan in the Rushes" (Munich Gallery) ; "Villa by the Sea," "Cen taur Struggle," "Panic Terror," "Anacreontic Shepherd Boy," "The Isle of the Blessed" (Ber lin Museum). Most of his finest paintings are in private collections in Germany and Switzer land. the largest number of them in the Schack Gallery in Munich, among which is the "Sea idyl," one of his most original compositions, and a great masterpiece from the coloristic point of view. Consult: Lehrs. Arnold Iltick.
cin Lcitfaden zum l'crstandnis seiner Kunst (Munich, 1S97) ; Heinrich Broekhaus, Arnold Backlin (Leipzig, 1901).