Chope À Bière "Isle of the Dead"

The Isle of the Dead originated in the 1880s by Arnold Böcklin and later many other artists from Salvador Dali to HR Giger created many interpretations of the same visual symbolism. This piece does not focus on the “dead” specifically, but rather creatures that aren’t technically “alive” per se. The main character is a mermaid, but also included are some extinct animals such as plesiosaur, trilobites, pterodactyl and rhamphorhynchus. Böcklin’s version was one of the first mass-marketed prints in the late 1800s, Nabokov references it “hanging in every home in Berlin” at one point.