• Arnold Böcklin Self-Portrait (1872)

I’ve been fascinated by the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin for years and was very excited when I saw so much of his work in Basle a few years ago (though this self-portrait was not there – it’s in Berlin).  I’d known his Isle of the Dead (1886) in association with Rachmaninoff’s wonderful symphonic poem of 1908.

This upload has a cover photo that’s not really appropriate for the piece, but it’s a fascinating audio document.  The composer recorded The Isle of the Dead with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1929.  As I believe is quite typical of performances of his own works, it is brisker and less indulgent than many others.

Oh yes, Böcklin’s self-portrait. He painted it in 1872 and it has come to haunt me recently, though not in a lugubrious way.  Happily, he lived for another 29 years after he made it.