Arnold Bocklin - Isle of the Dead

This morning I did something I haven't had time to do in months - I went to one of my favorite websites and spent some time just hanging out, looking at art.

If you haven't been to Mark Harden's Artchive and you're a fan of art of any kind (because it has literally everything) - www.artchive.com - you'll want to put this on your favorites bar.

There are over 250 artists and some 3000 scans - good ones - of art, plus links to art that isn't on the site. You can choose to look at a style of art, an era, a group of artists. It's a terrific resource.

Today I found Arnold Bocklin - a German painter who spent a lot of time in Rome. This painting blew me away. Bocklin (or Boecklin) spent a lot of time in Rome and he actually painted this island five times. This version, it seems, he painted because a widow had asked him for something to meditate on.

For me, it's the light and dark, the way the figure on the boat and the coffin glow, the way the trees are somehow so very Italian.

Lovely morning for me.

Kate