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    Museum collections / Art Institute of Chicago
    In the Sea
    Arnold Böcklin. In the Sea, 1883. The Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain (CC0).
    AT-00001476

    Public data from the Art Institute of Chicago. Learn more

    In the Sea

    by Arnold Böcklin

    Provenance

    Kunsthandlung Fritz Gurlitt, 1884. Adalbert Mylius-Gemuseus, Basel, Switzerland, 1886 to at least 1927 [see Basel 1927]; by descent to Herr Simon-Mylius, Basel. Albert Vorster-Burckhardt, Basel from 1950, offered for sale, Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 1990, lot 127; bought in; sold by Vorster-Burckhardt through Sotheby's to the Art Institute, 1990.

    Exhibition history

    Berlin, Kunsthandlung Fritz Gurlitt, 1884. Basel, Kunsthalle, Basel Kunstverein, Katalog der Böcklin-Jubiläums-Ausstellung in der Kunsthalle zu Basel, 1897, no. 76. Basel, Kunsthalle, Arnold Böcklin (1827-1927): Austellung zur Feier des 100. Geburtsjahres, 1927, no. 123a. Basel, Kunsthalle, Arnold Böcklin: Ausstellung zum Gedächtinis an seinen 50. Todestag, 1951, no. 104. Basel, Kunstmuseum, Arnold Böcklin 1827-1901: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Plastiken-Ausstellung zum 150. Geburtstag, 1977, p. 207, no. 169 (ill.). Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, Comic Grotesque: Wit and Mockery in German Art, 1870–1940, March 28–June 8, 2003, no. 4. Art Institute of Chicago, Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth, February 14–April 26, 2009, cat. 91 (ill.).

    Publications

    Heinrich Alfred Schmid, Arnold Böcklin: Eine Auswahl der hervorragendsten Werke des Künstlers in Photogravüre (Munich, 1897), vol. III, pl. 14 (ill.). K. Woermann, "Arnold Böcklin," Von Apelles zu Böcklin, Esslingen, vol. 2, 1912, p. 162. Carl Neumann, "Zu Arnold Böcklins siebenzigsterm Geburtstag," Die Kunst für Alle, vol. 13, 1898, p. 9 (ill.). Heinrich Wölfflin, "Die Böcklin-Ausstellung zu Basel," Kunstchronik 1898, p. 36. Franz Hermann Meissner, Arnold Böcklin (Berlin, 1901), pp. 106-7. Henriette Mendelsohn, Böcklin (Berlin, 1901), pp. 144, 182, 183. Gustav Floerke, Zehn Jahre mit Böcklin (Munich, 1902), pp. 26, 82-3 (ill.). Adolf Frey, Arnold Böcklin in Zürich (Zürich, 1902), p. 13. Otto Lasius, Tagebücher (Berlin, 1903), p. 134. Heinrich Alfred Schmid, Böcklin-Verzeichnis (Munich, 1903), no. 326. Alfred Julius Meier-Graefe, Der Fall Böcklin und die Lehre von den Einheiten (Stuttgart, 1905), pp. 230, 255. Kornel Jaskulski, Der Symbolismus Böcklins (Czernowitz, 1909), pp. 24, 26. Fritz von Ostini, Böcklin (Bielefeld, 1925) pp. 80, 82, 103 (ill.). Hanns Floerke, Arnold Böcklin (Munich, 1927), p. 57. Rold Andree, Arnold Böcklin (dissertation, Freie University, Berlin, 1962), pp. 26-7. Rof Andree, Arnold Böcklin: Die Gemälde (Zürich, 1977) p. 449, no. 376 (ill.). "Arnold Böcklin: In the Sea (Im Meere), 1883," Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, 2 (1994), pp. 116-17. Jay A. Clarke, “Neo-Idealism, Expressionism, and the Writing of Art History,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 28, 1 (2002), pp. 28-29. Jay A. Clarke, Stephanie D’Alessandro, Carola Kupfer, Mark Pascale, Virginia Voedisch, “Portfolio,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 28, 1 (2002), pp. 85-86, cat. 4.

    Quick Overview

    Artist
    Arnold Böcklin (Swiss, 1827–1901)
    Date
    1883
    Medium
    Oil on panel
    Dimensions
    86.5 × 115 cm (34 3/8 × 45 3/4 in.); Framed: 130.8 × 158.8 × 17.8 cm (51 1/2 × 62 1/2 × 7 in.)
    Type
    Painting
    Classification
    oil on panel
    Style
    19th century
    Place
    Switzerland
    Department
    Painting and Sculpture of Europe
    Credit line
    Joseph Winterbotham Collection
    Accession no.
    1990.443

    More by Arnold Böcklin in museum collections

    • Ruin by the Sea

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    • Island of the Dead

      Arnold Böcklin

      1880 · Painting

      Public collection via the Metropolitan Museum of ArtAT-00014582

    Open-access museum data

    This record comes from the open-access collection data that the Art Institute of Chicago publishes for unrestricted use (Creative Commons Zero). Art Trackers shows a selection of the museum's published fields. The Art Institute of Chicago is not an Art Trackers client and has not reviewed or endorsed this page; the museum's own website is the authoritative record.

    • View this work at the Art Institute of Chicago
    • The Art Institute of Chicago: open-access terms

    Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

    Open-access museum record · AT-00001476

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