The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Ruin by the Sea

Ruin by the Sea

1881
(Swiss, 1827–1901)
Framed: 132.1 x 102.9 x 8.3 cm (52 x 40 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.); Unframed: 111 x 82 cm (43 11/16 x 32 5/16 in.)

Did You Know?

Who used to live in this crumbling villa on a lonely shore? Böcklin's eerie painting seems to beg the question of the building's history and the circumstances of its ruin. Haunted by the past, this scene also contains premonitions of future peril.

Description

The dark, ruined villa in this painting is made especially mysterious by the strange cypress trees tossed by the wind. A nervous green light flickers through the scene. Influenced by German Romantic art of the early 1800s, Böcklin was preoccupied with dreamlike images suggestive of death.
  • C. Wetter-Rüsch, St. Gallen, by 1893. Hermann Nabel, Berlin 1897. Kunsthandel Eduard Schulte, Berlin 1902. E. Junghanns, Schramberg. Paul Landenberger Jr., Schramberg. Zürich sale, Max G. Bollag, 23 March 1933 (lot 107), Ruine am Meer, reproduced. Private collection, Zürich. Fischer Fine Art, London. Purchased by the cma on 17 August 1979.
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99. Reproduced: cat. no. 19, p. 74; Mentioned: p. 61 www.jstor.org
    Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 34-37, Vol. I, no. 12
    Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. Mentioned: p.84; Reproduced: p. 85
  • Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (November 16, 2000-March 18, 2001); Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (June 6-September 24, 2001).
    Montreal, Quebec: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (11/16/00 - 4/16/01); Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou (6/6/01 - 9/30/01) "Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences" repr. p. 315.
    Object in Focus: Ruin by the Sea by Arnold Böcklin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-March 14, 1999).
    Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; February 9 - March 14, 1999. "Object in Focus: Ruin by the Sea by Arnold Böcklin."
    Visions of Landscape: East and West. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 17-March 21, 1982).
    Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980).
    London, Fischer Fine Art Ltd. 1860-1910 Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture (1979), unpaginated, Ruine am Meer (1881) (repr.).
    Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe. Arnold Böcklin 1827-1901 (1977), no. 65 (repr.); private collection, Zürich.
    Basel, Kunsthalle. Erinnerung an die Ausstellung Schweizerischer Künstler (1883), 3, 4, Ruine am Meer (repr.).
    Berlin, Königliche Akademie der Künste. Ausstellung von Wercken Arnold Böcklins zur Feier seines 70. Geburtstages (1897-98), no. 74.
  • {{cite web|title=Ruin by the Sea|url=false|author=Arnold Böcklin|year=1881|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1979.57