The Island of the Dead is the best-known painting by Swiss symbolist Arnold Böcklin. An inspiration to many, this bleak painting was created in five versions. According to Nabokov, a reproduction of it hung in every German home.

Many researchers say, the inspiration for the Isle of the Dead was our lovely Pontikonissi, which every tourist has in their camera when leaving Corfu.

Although there’s no clear information, where the other well-known series of Böcklin “Villa by the Sea” was painted, but closer look onto shoreline and Venetian arches typical to Corfiot architecture allows one to pose the thesis that Corfu was the artist’s inspiration.