Am Quell (At the Source)

Born in Basel, Böcklin was among the most celebrated Swiss artists of the 19th century, initially making a name for himself as a painter of idyllic and elegiac visions of nature in the vein of Caspar David Friedrich. Gradually, however, he shifted towards darker, dreamlike imagery, often referencing ancient mythology, to explore the psychological content of landscape and the ability of nature to arouse the subconscious states of man. By the end of the century Böcklin had achieved widespread fame across Europe, and his works were among the most expensive contemporary paintings in Germany. He had an important influence on younger generations of artists, from Franz von Stuck and the Pre-Raphaelites, to Giorgio de Chirico and Surrealists such as Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Salvador Dalí.

Rolf Andree observes that the structure of the present landscape can be traced back to Bocklin’s Petrach at the Source of the Vaucluse (1867). “Where the poet Petrarch stands in the large painting… Böcklin here depicts a female figure leaning against the rock” (R. Andree., ibid.,p. 411). The poet, clothed all in red, stands apart from the background. Indeed, Petrach’s outstretched left hand rests firmly and entirely on his paper whilst his right hand his occupied with his quill. Only one foot rests entirely on the ground, otherwise contact with his natural surroundings is minimal. He is an introspective figure, looking into the middle-distance and seemingly oblivious to the landscape around him or the flowing water by his feet.
In contrast, the female figure here is fully immersed in her natural surroundings. The man-made structures present in Petrach at the Source of the Vaucluse are excluded. The figure has shed her clothes and stands nude and fully preoccupied by the landscape. Her outstretched hands reach out for the translucent water falling from above, her feet are fully immersed in the clear water.
The identity of the figure remains enigmatic. H. A. Schmid proposed that the figure could represent Diana the huntress (H.A. Schmid,ibid., 5.24). Diana was a favoured subject of Böcklin’s oeuvre. Early in his career he painted Diana’s Hunt, commissioned by the museum in his native city of Basel. Later he would return to the subject with a work of great pace and rhythm in La Chasse de Diane (1896) which is now in the Musée d’Orsay. Notably the fast flowing river plays a key role in creating tension in the latter work. If the present work is a quote from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, we have to conclude that this scene depicted is moments before Acteon interrupts Diana bathing naked in a spring. This is mere suggestion – in Böcklin’s composition there are no onlookers to this private moment of bathing in nature.
Schmid also proposes that the figure could represent an Amazon warrior based on the attributes lying on the ground and the horse which features in an accompanying drawing (H.A. Schmid, 1921, pl. 67). Perhaps it is deliberate that Böcklin chose not to fully identify the figure with one particular person, instead allowing her to exist as one being within her natural surroundings. Such a decision would be appropriate for a major figure of the Symbolist movement.