How to Read Arnold Böcklin’s Most Famous Mystical Painting

Entering the isle of the dead

Isle of the Dead (1880) by Arnold Böcklin. Oil on canvas. 111 × 155 cm. Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland. Image source Wikimedia Commons

Christopher P Jones is the author of What Great Artworks Say, an examination of some of art’s most enthralling images.

This painting shows a moonlit island across an expanse of inky dark water.