id: 149665 accession number: 1979.57 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1979.57 updated: 2024-03-26 01:59:43.969000 Ruin by the Sea, 1881. Arnold Böcklin (Swiss, 1827–1901). Oil on fabric; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1979.57 title: Ruin by the Sea title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1881 creation date earliest: 1881 creation date latest: 1881 current location: 219 19th Century European creditline: Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund copyright: --- culture: Switzerland technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Arnold Böcklin (Swiss, 1827–1901) - artist 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. After a short stay in Basel, Böcklin moved to Rome in 1850 and married Angela Pascucci three years later. In 1857 he returned via Basel to Hannover, where he decorated the dining room in the Wedekind mansion (1858). He hoped this commission would relieve his financial burdens, but Wedekind was far from pleased with the result. Böcklin's first major success occurred when he exhibited Pan in the Reeds (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich) in 1859 in Munich. King Ludwig I bought the work, and soon after Böcklin started teaching in Weimar (1860-62). In Munich he met Baron von Schack, who became one of his most important supporters. From 1862 through 1866 he lived in Rome and while there was in touch with Anselm Feuerbach (1829-1880) and Hans von Marées (1837-1887). The trio formed the nucleus of the late-nineteenth-century "Deutschrömer" (German Romans) who continued a tradition of German artists working in Italy using a classical vocabulary. Böcklin moved repeatedly, living in Basel (1866-71), Munich (1871-74), Florence (1874-85), and Zurich (1885-92) until he finally settled in Florence in 1892. In Basel he painted the murals for the Museum an der Augustinergasse (1868-70); Jacob Burckhardt's criticism of these works ended their close friendship. At the end of his career he had built a solid reputation and was praised as a distinctively German artist. His seven-tieth birthday was celebrated with exhibitions in Basel and Berlin. With other movements such as impressionism and modernism taking over, however, the esteem for his art soon diminished after his death in 1901. Except for the attention of artists like Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) and other surrealists, recognition of Böcklin's work did not reappear until the second half of the twentieth century. (For a self-portrait of Böcklin, see Blanche, fig. 11a.) --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower left: A B translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Year in Review: 1979 opening date: 1980-02-13T05:00:00 Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980). title: Visions of Landscape: East and West opening date: 1982-02-17T05:00:00 Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982). title: Object in Focus: Ruin by the Sea by Arnold Böcklin opening date: 1999-02-09T00:00:00 Object in Focus: Ruin by the Sea by Arnold Böcklin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-March 14, 1999). title: Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences opening date: 2000-11-16T00:00:00 Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (November 16, 2000-March 18, 2001); Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (June 6-September 24, 2001). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Basel, Kunsthalle. Erinnerung an die Ausstellung Schweizerischer Künstler (1883), 3, 4, Ruine am Meer (repr.).', 'opening_date': None} * {'description': 'Berlin, Königliche Akademie der Künste. Ausstellung von Wercken Arnold Böcklins zur Feier seines 70. Geburtstages (1897-98), no. 74.', 'opening_date': None} * {'description': 'Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe. Arnold Böcklin 1827-1901 (1977), no. 65 (repr.); private collection, Zürich.', 'opening_date': '1977-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'London, Fischer Fine Art Ltd. 1860-1910 Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture (1979), unpaginated, Ruine am Meer (1881) (repr.).', 'opening_date': '1979-01-01T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 9 - March 14, 1999. "Object in Focus: Ruin by the Sea by Arnold Böcklin."', 'opening_date': '1999-02-09T00:00:00'} * {'description': 'Montreal, Quebec: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (11/16/00 - 4/16/01); Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou (6/6/01 - 9/30/01) "Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences" repr. p. 315.', 'opening_date': '2000-11-16T00:00:00'} --- 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. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99. page number: Reproduced: cat. no. 19, p. 74; Mentioned: p. 61 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159667 Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34-37, Vol. I, no. 12 url: Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. page number: Mentioned: p.84; Reproduced: p. 85 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1979.57/1979.57_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1979.57/1979.57_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1979.57/1979.57_full.tif