スイスのバーゼルに生まれ、ドイツやイタリアで活躍した象徴主義の画家です。神話の怪物や妖精、海の生きものなど、空想の世界をはっきりした色で描きました。いちばん有名な『死の島』は、小舟が白い人影をのせて、糸杉の生えた岩の島へ向かう、しずかでなぞめいた絵です。晩年はイタリアのフィレンツェ近くで暮らしました。
Böcklin was born in Basel, Switzerland, and worked in Germany and Italy. He was a Symbolist painter who showed fantasy worlds of mythical creatures, nymphs and sea beings in clear, strong colors. His most famous work, Isle of the Dead, shows a small boat carrying a white figure toward a rocky island full of cypress trees. It is quiet and mysterious. He spent his last years near Florence, Italy.
