What it is
A small boat approaches a rocky island ringed by cypresses. A white-robed figure stands in the bow in front of a coffin, and a rower pulls slowly toward the water gate.
What it represents
The crossing. Böcklin was asked by a widow for a picture 'to dream by', and painted five versions of this island.
The symbolism
The cypresses, the cliff, and the sealed stillness of the water are all part of the old imagery of passage. Nothing in the painting is menacing; it is silent, ordered, and strangely hospitable. It treats death as a place that can be approached with calm.
Poems and letters beside it
prose poem
On Joy and Sorrow (from The Prophet)
Kahlil Gibran (1923)
A silent island of cypress trees, neither threatening nor welcoming, only still. The landscape of healing: arrived at after crossing difficult water, held in necessary quiet.
poem
O Captain! My Captain!
Walt Whitman (1865)
A ship comes safely home and the one who guided it has died. Böcklin's boat arrives at the island in the same silence.
poem
Dirge Without Music
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1928)
The island of the dead approached in silence across still water. The painting holds what the poem holds: refusal to be consoled, and beauty that does not flinch from what it shows.
