Faun whistling to a blackbird

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Faun whistling to a blackbird (Arnold Böcklin)
Faun whistling to a blackbird
Arnold Böcklin , 1863
Oil on canvas
48.4 x 35.6 cm
New Pinakothek, Munich

Faun, whistling at a blackbird is a painting by the Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin from 1863, which today belongs to the Bavarian State Painting Collection and is in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich . In 1919 the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover acquired the second version of the Faun whistling from a blackbird, painted by Böcklin in a second version in 1864/65 from the collection of Baron Friedrich von Westenholz .

description

Second version of the motif, 1864/65
48.8 × 49 cm, Lower Saxony State Museum, Hanover

The painting shows a faun lying on its back in a depression. The left leg is placed over the other. The right hand rests on the ankle of the bent leg. Above him to the left sits a blackbird on a leafy branch , which stands out sharply against the bright background. The faun's left hand is raised. The fingers are spread apart and seem to mimic the movement of the beak. The faun's head is stretched back and slightly raised, the lips are pursed, so that the viewer has the impression that he is watching the faun and blackbird during a conversation. A dark entrance opens to the left of the center of the picture, which apparently leads to a cave.

On the second version of the picture, in the holdings of the Lower Saxony State Museum, Hanover, a sheet of music can also be seen in the right foreground on which a flute has been placed. The faun stretches both arms upwards. He snaps his hands at the blackbird. The blackbird has spread its wings. The painter wants to combine the elements earth and air with his picture. The sheet of music bears the title “Hopser”, which should ironically accompany the subject of the picture.

classification

Böcklin's Faun, whistling at a blackbird, is one of the painter's mythological pictures. The scene shows a closed piece of nature that lacks all spatial and temporal references. The scene looks cheerful, the goat-footed demigod, who, as lord of the wilderness, likes to frighten passing shepherds and flocks to pass the time, is shown here idling.

literature