King David

In 1868, back in his home city of Basel, Böcklin took a commission from the merchant Karl Sarasin to decorate the garden hall of his house. He painted three biblical scenes straight onto the walls in fresco and finished all three in about two months. This King David with his harp was the middle one, set between a Rest on the Flight into Egypt and the Road to Emmaus. Fresco is an old and unforgiving method, worked into wet plaster and impossible to correct once it dries, which rewards a painter who can commit fast. Biblical subjects were rare for him. He is remembered mostly for pagan gods and sea creatures, which makes a psalm-singing king an unusual thing to find in his hand. When the Sarasin house was later given up, the paintings were cut from the walls and brought here.