Arnold Böcklin

A. von der Mühll-Bachofen, Basel (acquired in 1896)
Mrs. A. von der Mühll-Bachofen, Basel (widow of the above, by 1927)
Mrs. Fürstenberger-von der Mühll, Rheinfelden (by descent from the above by 1938)
Kunsthandlung Schulthess, Basel
Private Collection, Arlesheim, near Basel (by 1968)
Acquired by the present owner circa 2000

Basel, Kunsthalle, Böcklin-Jubiläums-Ausstellung, 1897, no. 84
Basel, Kunsthalle, Böcklin-Ausstellung, 1917, no. 123
Basel, Kunsthalle, Böcklin: Ausstellung zum Gedächtnis an seinen 50. Todestag, 1951, no. 121
Basel, Kunsthalle, Arnold Böcklin, Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Plastiken. Ausstellung zum 150. Geburtstag, 1977, no. 195
Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe, Arnold Böcklin, Ausstellung zum 150. Geburtstag, 1977, no. 81

Karl Woermann, 'Arnold Böcklin (Zur Baseler Böcklin-Ausstellung 1897)' in Von Apelles zu Böcklin und weiter, vol. II, Esslingen am Neckar, 1912, p. 162
Heinrich Alfred Schmid, 'Arnold Böcklin. Sein Leben und sein Schaffen', in Arnold Böcklin, Eine Auswahl der hervorragendsten Werke des Künstlers in Photogravüre, Munich, 1897, pp. 71 & 74
Carl Neumann, 'Arnold Böcklin', in Die Kunst für Alle, 1898, p. 13, illustrated
Heinrich Wölfflin, 'Die Böcklin-Ausstellung zu Basel', in Kunstchronik, vol. XIX, Leipzig, 1898, pl. 37, illustrated
Franz Hermann Meissner, Arnold Böcklin, Berlin, 1901, p. 115
Henriette Mendelsohn, Böcklin (from the Geisteshelden. Führende Geister series), Berlin, 1901, pp. 193-4
Heinrich Alfred Schmid, Verzeichnis der Werke Arnold Böcklins, Munich, 1903, no. 397 (as Polyphem)
Kornel Jaskulski, Der Symbolismus Böcklins, Csernowitz, 1909, p. 27
Adolf Frey, Arnold Böcklin. Nach den Erinnerungen seiner Zürcher Freunde, Stuttgart, 1912, pp. 117-8
Fritz von Ostini, Böcklin, Bielefeld, 1925, pp. 110 & 117, illustrated
Wilhelm Barth, Arnold Böcklin, Frauenfeld, 1928, p. 34
Rolf Andree, Arnold Böcklin. Die Gemälde, Zurich, 1977, p. 517, no. 454, catalogued and illustrated

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd., London SW1Y 6BU: UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The artist's panel has been cradled and is providing an even and secure structural support. Paint surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. Inspection under ultraviolet light shows scattered retouchings, the most significant of which are: 1) an area measuring approximately 11 x 5 cm to the upper left of the sky, 2) a thin vertical line approximately 4 cm in length to the lower centre of the sea, 3) several small retouchings close to the lower horizontal framing edge below the stern of the boat, and 4) small scattered spots and lines within the rocks and to the upper left of the corner of the sky. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition. Held in an elaborate gold-painted wood and plaster frame with elaborate open-work foliate ornaments.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This dramatic work depicts the climax of the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus as recounted by Homer in Book 9 of his Odyssey - Odysseus and his men fleeing the enraged Cyclops they have just blinded. The movement and tension are palpable as the oarsmen put all their strength into overcoming the massive wave that threatens to sweep them back towards their enemy. Another wave has just crashed into the rocks, leaving a whirlpool of froth and foam on the water's surface, as the muscular Polyphemus towers over them. The vivid reds and browns of the boat contrast with the ominous brown rocks and the dark figure of the Cyclops. Böcklin deliberately obscures Polyphemus's face so as not to distract the viewer's attention from the bigger struggle at hand. The story has fascinated artists throughout the ages, making Böcklin's painting part of the canon of epic paintings of the subject that punctuates European art from the time of Antiquity, during the Renaissance, and beyond (figs. 1 & 2). 

The Greek hero Odysseus, needing to provision his fleet during his journey home from the Trojan War, encounters the islands of the one-eyed hermetic giants, the Cyclopes. Taking one ship and its crew, he lands on an island with a huge cave filled with sheep and goats, home of the great Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon. When Polyphemus returns home and finds Odysseus and his men, he blocks the cave entrance with a great stone, trapping the Greeks inside. Polyphemus then crushes and immediately devours two of the men for his meal the first night.

The next morning, Polyphemus kills and eats two more of Odysseus's men for breakfast and leaves the cave to graze his sheep. The desperate Odysseus devises a clever escape plan. He spots a large unseasoned olivewood club that Polyphemus left behind the previous night and, with the help of his men, sharpens the narrow end to a fine point. He hardens the stake over a flame and hides it from sight. On his return to the cave, Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name, to which Odysseus replies 'Outis' (the Greek for 'Nobody'). As part of the plan, Odysseus offers Polyphemus a full goatskin of wine and after finishing the last drop, and feeling a little drunk, Polyphemus falls fast asleep. Odysseus and four of his men bring out the pole, and with one great thrust plunge the point into Polyphemus' eye, pushing it deep and blinding him completely. Polyphemus screams out in pain, so loud that it brings the neighbouring Cyclopes to see what is wrong. 'Who is hurting you?' ask the other Cyclopes, to which Polyphemus screams the reply 'Nobody is hurting me'. Believing his screams to be a punishment from the gods, the other Cyclopes walk away.

At daybreak Polyphemus rolls the great boulder from the mouth of the cave to let out his flock, but being totally blind, and knowing the Greeks will try to escape, he feels each animal as he lets it pass. Odysseus and his men each hold on to the belly of a ram, and, one by one, escape from the cave and run for their ship. Once aboard, Odysseus taunts Polyphemus by telling him his true identity: 'Just to set the record straight, the name's Odysseus,' he calls across the water. 'But you have Nobody to thank for your troubles - nobody but yourself, that is'. And Polyphemus, realising he has been tricked, throws a boulder at the ship. But the rowers redouble their efforts and manage to escape, leaving the blinded Cyclops raging impotently on the shore.

No one dominated the art of German-speaking countries in the last decades of the nineteenth century more than Arnold Böcklin. The larger than life subject and bravura technique of Odysseus and Polyphemus are, unwittingly, a reflection of the veritable personality cult at whose centre he stood. Richard Muther, in his History of Painting in the Nineteenth Century, published in 1893-94, celebrated him as the 'founder of a new, intensely yearned-for art', adding that Böcklin's spirit was rich enough for the past century and surely also for the coming one as well.  When Edvard Munch visited the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1891, he found traditional German art unbearable. Böcklin alone, he said, was 'the sacred flame', his work suffused with a profound spirituality. Not only was Böcklin venerated among painters, he was also the favourite of the public, a 'must' in the house of every self-respecting burgher.

Böcklin's work, like that of Anselm Feuerbach with whom he studied under Johann Wilhelm Schirmer at the Academy of Düsseldorf, captivated contemporary audiences - and continues to captivate audiences today - through its beguiling and escapist mythological imagery. Delving into the mythical past was not new to Western art, but one needs to look at the particular historical context in which Böcklin was working to understand both what drew him to his subjects when it did, and the hold his art exercised over contemporary viewers.

By the third quarter of the nineteenth century Germany and the German-speaking lands were experiencing rapid industrialisation and social change. Such monumentous upheavals raised existential questions among people from across all the classes, philosphers, intellectuals, and artists included, and in this sense Böcklin's paintings are very much a reflection of philosophical debates current at the time. Like the writings of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Böcklin's choice of subjects pleased an audience eager to escape into a yearned-after past; but would also enrich people's emotional lives, stimulate their imagination and, through mythology, teach them to understand the eternal universal cycle of things.

There are indeed connections between the painter and the philosopher. They knew each other through mutual acquaintances from Basel, Böcklin's birthplace and the town where Nietzsche was professor of Classics. In his writings Nitzsche developed a form of spirituality that addressed his age, and incorporated a dynamic earthiness. Proclaiming the death of God he called for a new mythology to be built from direct experience. In his masterpiece The Birth of Tragedy (1872) he studied the way in which the ancient Greeks had invented their own spiritual world out of their perception of nature and fundamental human desires.

One of the most powerful concepts Nietzsche developed in this book was the distinction between two basic aesthetic principles, the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Apollonian celebrated formal beauty, as exemplified in the visual arts. The Dionysian was the spirit of excitement and intoxication, of the dance and of music. Despite being a visual artist, Böcklin was fired by the Dionysian. However he had a sufficient sense of the Apollonian to present this powerful vision in forms of artistic beauty.  In a sense he is expressing the Dionysian through the form of the Apollonian in a manner comparable to that which Nietzsche felt had been achieved in Greek tragedy. Nietzsche himself recognised a kindred spirit in the artist and referred to him as a 'path breaking painter'.

These Nietzschean ideas get to the very heart of Böcklin's work. By delving into Antiquity, Böcklin expressed the growing need for an art that was more comprehensive and universal than that being promoted at the Academies, just as Wagner could not have composed his Ring of the Nibelungen had not the mythical primeval age of the European peoples been revealed. His art can be seen as an attempt at a cultural renaissance whose example would quash the staid ideals of naturalism and modern life in recognition of a higher truth, much as the sixteenth century masters had turned to classical subjects for similar reasons.

While Böcklin would have refuted that he had a political agenda, his success happened to coincide with the unification of Germany and the founding of the second German Reich in 1871, and as a result his subjects drawn from the dawn of civilisation came to symbolise for many the Gründerzeit ('Founding Years') and the birth of German nationhood.

Odysseus and Polyphem is thus a tour de force of opposites held in tension: the struggle between Homer's protagonists symbolises so many others: between old and new forms of artistic expression; between the Apollonian and the Dionysian; between mythology and science; between man and nature.