Arnold Böcklin

In 1845 Arnold Böcklin enrolled for two years at the Düsseldorf academy in the landscape class of Johann Wilhelm Schirmer (1807-1863). Böcklin traveled to Brussels and Antwerp, where he admired Flemish paintings, and then continued his studies with the landscape painter Alexandre Calame (1810-1864) in Geneva. In Paris during the tumultuous February and June Revolutions of 1848, Böcklin copied Old Master paintings at the Louvre. Couture's (q.v.) Romans of the Decadence (1847, Musée d'Orsay, Paris) made a strong impression on him, as did Corot's (q.v.) atmospheric treat-ment of landscapes....