Nymph by the fountain 

Arnold Böcklin painted this oil on wood, Nymph by the Fountain, sometime in the late nineteenth century. Böcklin was a Swiss artist working in a German-speaking environment, at a time when the German-speaking world was rapidly industrializing. The painting depicts a classical subject, a nymph, in a style that is both realistic and romantic. Böcklin looked to the art and literature of the ancient world for inspiration. The classical world was seen as representing a lost idyll, a world of natural beauty and harmony, which was often contrasted with the perceived ugliness and alienation of modern industrial society. Böcklin was associated with the symbolist movement, which emphasized subjective experience and the expression of inner states of mind. He saw art as a way of tapping into the deeper currents of human consciousness. To truly understand Böcklin's art, we need to look at the cultural and intellectual history of his time. We can examine the writings of philosophers, poets, and critics who grappled with the challenges of modernity, and we can also look at the art of Böcklin's contemporaries.