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Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle
Arnold Böcklin · Symbolism & Art Nouveau
- Artist
- Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901)
- Date
- 1872
- Dimensions
- 75 x 61 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
In this self-portrait, the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin shows himself at his easel, brush and palette in hand, pausing to listen. Behind him, Death, a grinning skeleton, leans over his shoulder and plays a single-stringed fiddle close to his ear.
A closer look
The theme of Death playing music for the living comes from medieval and Renaissance images such as the Dance of Death, and Böcklin was inspired by a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. Yet Death here is not threatening; he seems more like a companion or a muse, and the painter listens with calm attention, as if the music inspires him. The image expresses the idea that art is created in the awareness of mortality. The strong colours and the firm modelling of the face contrast with the ghostly skeleton in the shadow.
More by Arnold Böcklin
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- Faun whistling to a Blackbird 1863
- The War 1896
- The Plague 1898
- The Sanctuary of Hercules 1884
- Playing in the Waves 1882
- Odysseus and Polyphemus 1896