Isle of the Dead is the best-known painting of Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin. It is one of the most often reproduced paintings in the history of art. Mysterious „Isle of the Dead“ was very popular among the creative people of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, especially among the so-called decadents. It also fascinated Lenin and Hitler, Freud and Clémenceau, and has inspired Salvador Dali, Martin Scorsese, August Strindberg, Sergei Rachmaninov, just to list few of different creators. The painting represents the final journey as described in Greek mythology, as the boatman Charon accompanies the dead to the underworld on the other side of the river Styx. All versions of Isle of the Dead depict a desolate and rocky islet seen across an expanse of dark water. A small rowing boat is just arriving at a water gate and seawall on shore. An oarsman maneuvers the boat from the stern. In the bow, facing the gate, is a standing figure clad entirely in white. Just ahead of the figure is a white, festooned object commonly interpreted as a coffin. The tiny islet is dominated by a dense grove of tall, dark cypress trees—associated by long-standing tradition with cemeteries and mourning—which is closely hemmed in by precipitous cliffs. Furthering the funerary theme are what appear to be sepulchral portals and windows on the rock faces. Böcklin himself provided no public explanation as to the meaning of the painting, though he did describe it as "a dream picture: it must produce such a stillness that one would be awed by a knock on the door". The title, which was conferred upon it by the art dealer Fritz Gurlitt in 1883, was not specified by Böcklin, though it does derive from a phrase in an 1880 letter he sent to the painting's original commissioner. Not knowing the history of the early versions of the painting, many observers have interpreted the oarsman as representing the boatman Charon, who ferried souls to the underworld in Greek mythology. The water would then be either the River Styx or the River Acheron, and his white- clad passenger a recently deceased soul transiting to the afterlife. Böcklin produced several different versions of the painting between 1880 and 1901, which today are exhibited in Basel, New York City, Berlin, St.Petersburg and Leipzig. Current eau-forte and aquatinte is made after the third version of Böcklin`s painting (made in 1883 for Böcklin's dealer Fritz Gurlitt). Gurlitt asked German artist Max Klinger, to engrave some Böcklin's paintings in 1880, including Isle of the Dead`s third version. The two artists have also met in person twice.