Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle
1872 · Oil on canvas · Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901)
- Year
- 1872
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 75 × 61 cm
- Collection
- Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin
- Movement
- Symbolism
Böcklin, palette and brush in hand, pauses and turns his head to listen as a grinning skeleton behind his shoulder plays a single-stringed fiddle into his ear. He painted it in Munich in 1872, at forty-five, and the skeleton was added after the self-portrait was finished, so that the picture turns from a conventional artist's likeness into a memento mori and a statement about where his art came from. The violin's one string is the note the painter listens for. Shown in Berlin in 1872 and acquired for the National Gallery there in 1898, it hangs in the Alte Nationalgalerie and is the picture by which the Swiss Symbolist, author of the Isle of the Dead, is best known in Germany.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A bearded painter turning to listen to a skeleton fiddling at his ear, in black, bone and warm brown, for a study, studio or hallway at 24×36 in black. Charcoal, deep green or stone walls suit the gloom; pair it with Isle of the Dead.
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Symbolism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1872)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, study or library, living room, dining room, dorm room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 24×36. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
