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Ruin by the Sea
Arnold Böcklin1881
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
The dark, ruined villa in this painting is made especially mysterious by the strange cypress trees tossed by the wind. A nervous green light flickers through the scene. Influenced by German Romantic art of the early 1800s, Böcklin was preoccupied with dreamlike images suggestive of death.
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Details
- Title: Ruin by the Sea
- Creator: Arnold Böcklin (Swiss, 1827–1901)
- Date Created: 1881
- Physical Dimensions: Framed: 132.1 x 102.9 x 8.3 cm (52 x 40 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.); Unframed: 111 x 82 cm (43 11/16 x 32 5/16 in.)
- Provenance: C. Wetter-Rüsch, St. Gallen, by 1893. Hermann Nabel, Berlin 1897. Kunsthandel Eduard Schulte, Berlin 1902. E. Junghanns, Schramberg. Paul Landenberger Jr., Schramberg. Zürich sale, Max G. Bollag, 23 March 1933 (lot 107), Ruine am Meer, reproduced. Private collection, Zürich. Fischer Fine Art, London. Purchased by the cma on 17 August 1979.
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1979.57
- Medium: oil on fabric
- Inscriptions: Signed lower left: A B
- Fun Fact: Who used to live in this crumbling villa on a lonely shore? Böcklin's eerie painting seems to beg the question of the building's history and the circumstances of its ruin. Haunted by the past, this scene also contains premonitions of future peril.
- Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: Switzerland
- Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
- Accession Number: 1979.57
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