In Springtime (Im Fruhling)

In Springtime (Im Fruhling)

Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901), art, beauty, Felton Bequest, feminine ideal, landscape, medieval dress, medieval theme, music, musical instrument, naturalism, nature, nostalgia, Renaissance art, Renaissance beauty, seasons, spring, springtime, VIC, Victoria

This work by Swiss-born artist Arnold Böcklin was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria with funds from the Felton Bequest in 1977. The painting depicts two beautiful ‘otherworldly’ female figures in flowing, colourful dresses walking in an idyllic green landscape. Although the dresses are of a romanticised medieval style, the naturalism with which the landscape is rendered is a typically nineteenth-century artistic style. “By bringing a modern sensibility to a late medieval scene”, Ted Gott et al have suggested, “the artist has brilliantly linked to his contemporary world the fifteenth-century ideal of beauty” (19th Century Painting and Sculpture in the International Collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, 2003, p.63).

Böcklin, Arnold

National Gallery of Victoria

National Gallery of Victoria

1873

National Gallery of Victoria

Oil on Canvas, 104.5 x 78cm;
Hyperlink