fbpx
Wikipedia

Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA, RWS (/ˈælmə ˈtædmə/;[1] born Lourens Alma Tadema, Dutch: [ˈlʌurəns ˈɑlmaː ˈtaːdəˌmaː]; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom, becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in London, England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there.


Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Alma-Tadema in 1870
Born
Lourens Alma Tadema

(1836-01-08)8 January 1836
Died25 June 1912(1912-06-25) (aged 76)
NationalityDutch
British denizen
Known forPainting
MovementAcademicism
Spouses
  • Marie-Pauline Gressin-Dumoulin de Boisgirard
    (m. 1863; died 1869)
  • (m. 1871; died 1909)
ChildrenLaurence Alma-Tadema
Anna Alma-Tadema
AwardsOrder of Merit
Royal Academician
Member of the Royal Watercolour Society

A painter of mostly classical subjects, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. One of the most popular Victorian painters, Alma-Tadema was admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and accurate depictions of Classical antiquity, but his work fell out of fashion after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been appreciated for its importance within Victorian painting.

Biography edit

Early life edit

 
Signature of Lourens Alma-Tadema
 
Lourens Alma Tadema's birth house and statue in Dronryp, Netherlands

Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronryp in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands.[2] The surname Tadema is an old Frisian patronymic, meaning 'son of Tade', while the names Lourens and Alma came from his godfather.[3] He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema (1797–1840), the village notary, and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer (c. 1800–1863). His father had three sons from a previous marriage. His parents' first child died young, and the second was Artje (c. 1834–1876), Lourens' sister, for whom he had great affection.

The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the nearby city of Leeuwarden, where Pieter's position as a notary would be more lucrative.[2] His father died when Lourens was four, leaving his mother with five children: Lourens, his sister, and three boys from his father's first marriage. His mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education. He received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers.

It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer; but in 1851 at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown. Diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. Left to his own devices, he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist.[3]

Move to Belgium edit

In 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium where he studied early Dutch and Flemish art, under Gustaf Wappers. During Alma-Tadema's four years as a registered student at the academy, he won several awards.

 
The Education of the Children of Clovis (1861), oil on canvas, 127 × 176.8 cm, private collection. Queen Clotilde, wife of King Clovis, is shown training her three young children the art of hurling the axe to avenge the death of her father.[4]

Before leaving the academy, towards the end of 1855, he became assistant to the painter and professor Louis (Lodewijk) Jan de Taeye, whose courses in history and historical costume he had greatly enjoyed at the academy. Although de Taeye was not an outstanding painter, Alma-Tadema respected him and became his studio assistant, working with him for three years. De Taeye introduced him to books that influenced his desire to portray Merovingian subjects early in his career. He was encouraged to depict historical accuracy in his paintings, a trait for which the artist became known.

De Taeye’s greatest influence on his young pupil was his interest in ancient civilisations, particularly the Egyptians, first displayed in The Dying Cleopatra, begun in 1859 but later destroyed by the artist, and The Sad Father or The Unfavourable Oracle (Opus X), painted in 1858. Originally a large processional painting in an architectural setting, it was later cut down to a smaller scale to show only three figures; this reduced painting is now in the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Another section of The Sad Father was modified by the artist ten years later, in 1869, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1871 under the title The Grand Chamberlain to Sesostris the Great. Of the large original painting, Sir Edmund William Gosse will later say: “As the first of a series of Egyptian pictures, some of which are to be counted among the highest expressions of Alma-Tadema’s genius, The Unfavourable Oracle is a work of great interest.” [5]

 
Preparatory studies for The Contrary Oracle, showing Alma-Tadema's early interest in Ancient Egypt as well as his attention to detail and historical accuracy.

The artist planned two other Egyptian-themed paintings in the years 1857 and 1858, named Going to the Oracle and The Contrary Oracle, of which a number of preparatory drawings that were once in Gosse's possession survive to this day. These paintings were either never executed, or else destroyed, as during his student years Alma-Tadema frequently destroyed or painted over works that he was unhappy with.

As the artist's contemporary biographer Percy Cross Standing noted of Lawrence Alma-Tadema's early paintings of Egyptian subjects in particular, “So careful at all times about detail, he took extraordinary care in the preparation of his preliminary sketches for these pictures.” When asked why he had chosen to paint Egyptian themes, Alma-Tadema said: “Where else should I have begun as soon as I had become acquainted with the life of the ancients? The first thing a child learns of ancient history is about the court of Pharaoh; and if we go back to the source of art and science, must we not return to Egypt?”[6]

Several of his early Egyptian paintings contain precise depictions of objects and settings, which reflect the artist's close study of an important reference book of his era: Sir John Gardner Wilkinson's “The Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians”, published in 1837.

 
Early uncredited work by Alma Tadema, collaborating with Hendrik Leys at Antwerp City Hall

Alma-Tadema left Taeye's studio in November 1858 returning to Leeuwarden before settling in Antwerp, where he began working with the painter Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys,[7] whose studio was one of the most highly regarded in Belgium. Under his guidance Alma-Tadema painted his first major work: The Education of the children of Clovis (1861). This painting created a sensation among critics and artists when it was exhibited that year at the Artistic Congress in Antwerp. It is said to have laid the foundation of his fame and reputation.[8] Alma-Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected, he was critical of the treatment of marble, which he compared to cheese.[8] He collaborated with Hendrik Leys on the series of wall paintings in the Leys Hall on the second floor of Antwerp City Hall, which depict significant moments in the history of The Netherlands.

Alma-Tadema took this criticism very seriously, and it led him to improve his technique and to become the world's foremost painter of marble and variegated granite. Despite any reproaches from his master, The Education of the Children of Clovis was well received by critics and artists alike and was eventually purchased and subsequently given to King Leopold of Belgium.[9]

In 1860 he befriended the Anglo-Dutch Dommersen family of artists in Utrecht. In 1862 he made pencil drawings of Mrs. Cornelia Dommershuizen and one of her sons Thomas Hendrik, whose brothers were the painters Pieter Cornelis Dommersen and Cornelis Christiaan Dommersen.[citation needed]

Early works edit

 
Egyptian Chess Players (1865), oil on wood, 39.8 × 55.8 cm. Private collection.

Merovingian subjects were the painter's favourites up to the mid-1860s. However Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal, so he switched to themes of life in ancient Egypt, which were more popular. In 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leys's studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject artist.

 
"This is our corner": A portrait of the artist's daughters, Anna and Laurense Alma-Tadema (1873)

1863 was to alter the course of Alma-Tadema's personal and professional life: on 3 January his invalid

 
The Mirror, 1868

mother died, and on 24 September he was married, in Antwerp City Hall, to Marie-Pauline Gressin-Dumoulin de Boisgirard, the daughter of Eugène Gressin-Dumoulin, a French journalist living near Brussels.[10] Nothing is known of their meeting and little of Pauline herself, as Alma-Tadema never spoke about her after her death in 1869. Her image appears in a number of oils, though he painted her portrait only three times, the most notable appearing in My studio (1867).[11] The couple had three children. Their eldest and only son lived only a few months dying of smallpox. Their two daughters, Laurence (1865–1940) and Anna (1867–1943), both had artistic leanings: the former in literature, the latter in art. Neither would marry.

Alma-Tadema and his wife spent their honeymoon in Florence, Rome, Naples and Pompeii. This, his first visit to Italy, developed his interest in depicting the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter since he found new inspiration in the ruins of Pompeii, which fascinated him and would inspire much of his work in the coming decades. There he met Geremia Discanno, an Italian painter who had been commissioned by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli to reproduce the brightly painted frescoes being uncovered in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum before they faded from exposure. He would consult Discanno a number of times before Discanno's death in 1907 to ensure his paintings of antiquity would reflect the lifestyle of residents of the Greco-Roman world accurately.[12]

During the summer of 1864, Tadema met Ernest Gambart, the most influential print publisher and art dealer of the period. Gambart was highly impressed with the work of Tadema, who was then painting Egyptian Chess Players (1865). The dealer, recognising at once the unusual gifts of the young painter, gave him an order for twenty-four pictures and arranged for three of Tadema's paintings to be shown in London.[13] In 1865, Tadema relocated to Brussels where he was named a knight of the Order of Leopold.

On 28 May 1869, after years of ill health, Pauline died of smallpox at Schaerbeek in Belgium, aged 32.[14] Her death left Tadema disconsolate and depressed. He ceased painting for nearly four months. His sister Artje, who lived with the family, helped with the two daughters then aged five and two. Artje took over the role of housekeeper and remained with the family until 1873 when she married.[14]

During the summer Tadema himself began to suffer from a medical problem which doctors in Brussels were unable to diagnose. Gambart eventually advised him to go to England for another medical opinion. Soon after his arrival in London in December 1869, Alma-Tadema was invited to the home of the painter Ford Madox Brown. There he met Laura Theresa Epps, who was seventeen years old, and fell in love with her at first sight.[15]

Move to England edit

 
The Tepidarium (1881), oil on panel, 24 × 33 cm. Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. Lounging next to the tepidarium, a curvaceous beauty takes her rest. She holds a strigil in her right hand.

The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870 encouraged Alma-Tadema to leave the continent and move to London. His infatuation with Laura Epps played a great part in his relocation to England and in addition Gambart felt that the move would be advantageous to the artist's career. In stating his reasons for the move, Tadema simply said "I lost my first wife, a French lady with whom I married in 1863, in 1869. Having always had a great predilection for London, the only place where, up till then my work had met with buyers, I decided to leave the continent and go to settle in England, where I have found a true home."

 
Lawrence Alma-Tadema by J. P. Mayall from Artists at Home, photogravure, published 1884, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC

With his small daughters and sister Artje, Alma-Tadema arrived in London at the beginning of September 1870. The painter wasted no time in contacting Laura, and it was arranged that he would give her painting lessons. During one of these, he proposed marriage. As he was then thirty-four and Laura was now only eighteen, her father was initially opposed to the idea. Dr Epps finally agreed on the condition that they should wait until they knew each other better. They married in July 1871. Laura, under her married name, also won a high reputation as an artist, and appears in numerous of Alma-Tadema's canvases after their marriage (The Women of Amphissa (1887) being a notable example). This second marriage was enduring and happy, though childless, and Laura became stepmother to Anna and Laurence. Anna became a painter and Laurence became a novelist.[16]

In England he initially adopted the name Laurence Alma Tadema instead of Lourens Alma Tadema and later used the more English spelling Lawrence for his forename. He also incorporated Alma into his surname so that he appeared at the beginning of exhibition catalogues, under "A" rather than under "T".[3] He did not actually hyphenate his last name, but it was done by others and this has since become the convention.[17]

Victorian painter edit

 
The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888), oil on canvas, 132.1 × 213.7 cm, private collection. As it was painted during the winter, Tadema arranged to have roses sent weekly from the French Riviera for four months to ensure the accuracy of each petal.
 
Unconscious Rivals (1893), oil on panel, 45 × 63 cm, Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. Alma-Tadema's female figures have a slightly bored pleasure-seeking attitude, as if they were pampered courtesans.[18] There is little action in Alma-Tadema's paintings. The composition is balanced by the flowers in bloom.

After his arrival in England, where he was to spend the rest of his life, Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. He became one of the most famous and highly paid artists of his time, acknowledged and rewarded. By 1871 he had met and befriended most of the major Pre-Raphaelite painters and it was in part due to their influence that the artist brightened his palette, varied his hues, and lightened his brushwork.

In 1872 Alma-Tadema organised his paintings into an identification system by including an opus number under his signature and assigning his earlier pictures numbers as well. Portrait of my sister, Artje, painted in 1851, is numbered opus I, while two months before his death he completed Preparations in the Coliseum, opus CCCCVIII. Such a system made it more difficult for fakes to be passed off as originals.[19]

In 1873 Queen Victoria in Council by letters patent made Alma-Tadema and his wife what are still up to the present time the last British denizens created (the legal process has theoretically not yet been abolished in the United Kingdom), with some limited special rights otherwise only accorded to and enjoyed by British subjects (that is, those would now be called British citizens). The previous year he and his wife made a journey on the continent that lasted five and a half months and took them through Brussels, Germany, and Italy. In Italy Alma-Tadema was able to take in the ancient ruins again; this time he purchased several photographs, mostly of the ruins, which began his immense collection of archival material used in the completion of future paintings. In January 1876, he rented a studio in Rome. The family returned to London in April, visiting the Paris Salon on their way back. In London he regularly met with fellow-artist Emil Fuchs.[20][21]

Among the most important of his pictures during this period was An Audience at Agrippa's (1876). When an admirer of the painting offered to pay a substantial sum for a painting with a similar subject, Alma-Tadema simply turned the emperor around to show him leaving, in After the Audience.

On 19 June 1879, Alma-Tadema was made a Royal Academician. Three years later, a major retrospective of his entire oeuvre was organised at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, including 185 of his pictures.

In 1883 he returned to Rome and Pompeii, where further excavations had taken place since his last visit. He spent a significant amount of time studying the site, going there daily. These excursions gave him an ample source of subject matter as he began to further his knowledge of daily Roman life. At times, however, he integrated so many objects into his paintings that some said they resembled museum catalogues.

One of his most famous paintings is The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888) – based on an episode from the life of the debauched Roman emperor Elagabalus (Heliogabalus), the painting depicts the emperor suffocating his guests at an orgy under a cascade of rose petals. The blossoms depicted were sent weekly to the artist's London studio from the French Riviera for four months during the winter of 1887–1888.

 
One of Alma-Tadema's contributions to The Bible and Its Story, Taught By One Thousand Picture Lessons (1910), depicting Josephs's return to his people

Among Alma-Tadema's works of this period are: An Earthly Paradise (1891), Unconscious Rivals (1893) Spring (1894), The Coliseum (1896) and The Baths of Caracalla (1899). Although Alma-Tadema's fame rests on his paintings set in antiquity, he also painted portraits, landscapes and watercolours, and made some etchings himself. (Many more were made of his paintings by others).

Personality edit

 
Spring (1894), oil on canvas,179.2 × 80.3 cm, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles[a]

For all the quiet charm and erudition of his paintings, Alma-Tadema himself preserved a youthful sense of mischief. He was childlike in his practical jokes and in his sudden bursts of bad temper, which could as suddenly subside into an engaging smile.

In his personal life, Alma-Tadema was an extrovert and had a warm personality.[23] He has been said to have had most of the characteristics of a child, coupled with the traits of a consummate professional. A perfectionist, he remained in all respects a diligent, if somewhat obsessive and pedantic worker. He was an excellent businessman, and one of the wealthiest artists of the nineteenth century. Alma-Tadema was as firm in money matters as he was with the quality of his work.[24]

As a man, Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a robust, fun loving and rather portly gentleman. There was not a hint of the delicate artist about him; he was a cheerful lover of wine, women, and parties.

Later years edit

Alma-Tadema's output decreased with time, partly on account of health, but also because of his obsession with decorating his new home, to which he moved in 1883. Nevertheless, he continued to exhibit throughout the 1880s and 1890s, receiving accolades including the medal of Honour at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889, election to an honorary membership of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1890, and the Great Gold Medal at the International Exposition in Brussels of 1897. In 1899 he was knighted in England, only the eighth artist from the Continent to receive this honour. He assisted with organizing the British section at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, as well as exhibiting two works that earned him the Grand Prix Diploma. He also assisted with the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, where he was well received.

 
Alma-Tadema standing next to a portrait bust of him

During this time, Alma-Tadema was very active with theatre design and production, designing many costumes. He also began to design furniture, often modelled after Pompeian or Egyptian motifs, as well as illustrations, textiles, and picture frames. In late 1902 he visited Egypt.[25] These other interests influenced his paintings, as he often incorporated some of his furniture designs and female costumes into the composition. Through his last period of creativity Alma-Tadema continued to produce paintings which repeated the successful formula of women on marble terraces overlooking the sea such as in Silver Favourites (1903).[26] Between 1903 and his death, Alma-Tadema painted less but still produced ambitious paintings such as The Finding of Moses (1904).[27]

On 15 August 1909 Alma-Tadema's wife, Laura, died at the age of fifty-seven. The grief-stricken widower outlived his second wife by less than three years. His last major composition was Preparation in the Coliseum (1912).[28] In the summer of 1912, Alma-Tadema was accompanied by his daughter Anna to Kaiserhof Spa, Wiesbaden, Germany, to be treated for stomach ulcers.[29] He died there on 28 June 1912 at the age of seventy-six. He was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London.[29]

Style edit

 
Silver Favourites, 1903, oil on wood, 69.1 × 42.2 cm, Manchester Art Gallery. An example of Alma-Tadema's contrasting gleaming white marble against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea.[30] The artist obliterated the middle-ground, and the foreground is abruptly juxtaposed with the distant horizon, creating a dramatic effect.[31]

Alma-Tadema's works are remarkable for their depiction of flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances like metals, pottery, and especially marble (leading to the nickname 'marbellous painter'). His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters.

From early in his career, Alma-Tadema was particularly concerned with architectural accuracy,[32] often painting objects from museums, such as the British Museum in London. He also took many images from books and amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy, which he used to achieve the most precise detail in his painting.

Alma-Tadema was a perfectionist, repeatedly reworking parts of paintings until he found them satisfactory. One story relates that after one of his paintings was rejected, he gave the canvas to a maid for a table cover. He was sensitive to every detail and architectural line in his settings. He would often paint from life, using fresh flowers from across Europe and even Africa, rushing to paint the flowers before they withered. His commitment to veracity earned him recognition, but also led some critics to accuse him of pedantry.

Alma-Tadema's work has been linked with that of European Symbolist painters.[33] He influenced European painters such as Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff,[33] who incorporated classical motifs, as well as Alma-Tadema's unconventional compositional devices such as abrupt cut-off at the edge of the canvas. Like Alma-Tadema, they also employ coded imagery to suggest hidden meanings.[33]

Reputation and sale prices edit

 
The Finding of Moses, 1904, oil on canvas, 137.7 × 213.4 cm, private collection. It includes a number of archaeologically precise objects and inscriptions, the results of Tadema's diligent research. After Tadema spent two years working on the painting, his wife pointed out wryly that the infant Moses was now a toddler, and need no longer be carried.[34]
 
Sappho and Alcaeus, completed in 1881, depicts Sappho and her companions listening as the poet Alcaeus of Mytilene plays a kithara, on the island of Lesbos.[35] (Walters Art Museum)

Alma-Tadema was one of the most popular painters of the Victorian era,[36] and among the most financially successful, though never matching Edwin Henry Landseer. For over sixty years, he gave his audience exactly what they wanted: distinctive, elaborate paintings of beautiful people in classical settings. His detailed reconstructions of ancient Rome, with languid men and women posed against white marble in dazzling sunlight, provided his audience with a glimpse of an exotic world of titillating luxury and intimate drama.

As with other painters, the reproduction rights for prints were often worth more than the canvas. For example, a painting together with its rights may have been sold to Gambart for £10,000 in 1874; then in 1903, when Alma-Tadema's prices were actually higher, it was sold again without rights for £2,625. Typical prices were between £2,000 and £3,000 in the 1880s, but at least three works sold for between £5,250 and £6,060 in the 1900s. Prices held well until the general collapse of the market for Victorian art in the early 1920s, when they fell to the hundreds, where they remained until the 1960s; by 1969 £4,600 had been reached again (equivalent to about £700 in 1900, adjusted for inflation).[37]

The last years of Alma-Tadema's life saw the rise of Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism, all of which he disapproved. As his pupil John Collier wrote, 'it is impossible to reconcile the art of Alma-Tadema with that of Matisse, Gauguin and Picasso.'[38]

His artistic legacy almost vanished. As the taste of the public and the artistic elite turned to twentieth-century modernism, it became fashionable to denouce his style. John Ruskin declared him "the worst painter of the 19th century", and one critic considered his paintings "about worthy enough to adorn bourbon boxes". After this brief period of condemnation, he was consigned to obscurity for the next half century.

Only since the 1960s has Alma-Tadema's work been rediscovered for its historical importance in the evolution of English art. He is now regarded[by whom?] as one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century, whose works demonstrate the care and exactitude of an era mesmerised by trying to visualise the past, some of which was being recovered through archaeological research.

Alma-Tadema's highly detailed depictions of Roman life and architecture, based on meticulous archaeological research, led Hollywood directors to his paintings as models for their cinematic ancient world, in films such as D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), Ben Hur (1926), and Cleopatra (1934). The most notable was Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments (1956):[38] its co-writer Jesse Lasky Jr. described how the director would spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to guide his set designers. The design of the Oscar-winning Roman epic Gladiator (2000) took its main inspiration from his paintings,[39] as well as that of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in The Chronicles of Narnia (2005).[40]

In 1962, New York art dealer Robert Isaacson mounted the first show of Alma-Tadema's work in fifty years,[41][42] and by the late 1960s, the revival of interest in Victorian painting gained impetus with a number of well-attended exhibitions.[43] Allen Funt, the creator and host of the American television show Candid Camera, was a collector of Alma-Tadema paintings during the 20th century nadir of the artist's reputation;[44] in a few years he bought 35 works, about ten per cent of Alma-Tadema's output. After Funt was robbed by his accountant, he was forced to sell his collection at Sotheby's London in November 1973,[45] contributing to the revived interest in the artist.[citation needed]

In 1960, the Newman Gallery was unable to sell, or even give away, one of his most celebrated works, The Finding of Moses (1904). The initial purchaser had paid £5,250 in 1904, and subsequent sales were for £861 in 1935, £265 in 1942, and it was "bought in" at £252 in 1960 (having failed to meet its reserve).[46] But when the same picture was auctioned at Christies New York in May 1995, it sold for £1.75 million. On 4 November 2010 it sold for $35,922,500 to an undisclosed bidder at Sotheby's New York, a new record for any Victorian artist.[47] On 5 May 2011, the painting The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra: 41 BC was sold at the same house for $29.2 million.[48]

Alma-Tadema's The Tepidarium (1881) is included in the 2006 book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die. Julian Treuherz, Keeper of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, describes it as an "exquisitely painted picture... [which] carries a strong erotic charge, rare for a Victorian painting of the nude".[49]

A blue plaque unveiled in 1975. This plaque commemorates Alma-Tadema at 44 Grove End Road, St John's Wood, his home from 1886 until his death in 1912.[50][51][52]

Archives edit

The Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham holds several archive collections relating to Alma-Tadema, including letters, artwork and photography.[53][54]

Gallery edit

See also edit

References and sources edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The painting relates the Victorian custom of children collecting flowers on May Day back to an Ancient Roman spring festival, perhaps Cerealia, Floralia or Ambarvalia, although the details depicted in the painting do not correspond to any single Roman festival. It is one of Tadema's most famous and popular works, it took him four years to complete. The models for many of the participants and spectators were Tadema's friends and members of his family.[22]

References edit

  1. ^ G. M. Miller, BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names (Oxford UP, 1971), p. 4.
  2. ^ a b Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 8.
  3. ^ a b c Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 10
  4. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 129.
  5. ^ Dumas, François Guillaume (1882). Illustrated biographies of modern artists. Paris: Librairie d’Art | Ludovic Baschet. p. 78.
  6. ^ Standing, Percy Cross (1905). Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A. London, Paris, New York, Melbourne, Cassell and Company, limited. pp. 33–34.
  7. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 15
  8. ^ a b Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 12.
  9. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 16
  10. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 13.
  11. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 20
  12. ^ Vinella, Pasquale Roberto (July 2021). Geremia Discanno il pittore di Pompei. Barletta, Italy: Editrice Rotas. ISBN 978-88-94983-81-4.
  13. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 15.
  14. ^ a b Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 41
  15. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 60
  16. ^ "Alma-Tadema". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 35.
  17. ^ Ash, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p.3.
  18. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 52
  19. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 62
  20. ^ Quoted on Tate website: Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.227–8
  21. ^ "Emil Fuchs 1866–1929".
  22. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 130
  23. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 35.
  24. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 34.
  25. ^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36929. London. 19 November 1902. p. 10.
  26. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 179
  27. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 186
  28. ^ "Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema: Preparation in the Coliseum (1912) | Vivat! Crescat! Floreat!". Vcrfl.wordpress.com. 4 March 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2013.
  29. ^ a b Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 194
  30. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 131
  31. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 54
  32. ^ Calinski, Catull in Bild und Ton, 98-141
  33. ^ a b c Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 192
  34. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 29
  35. ^ "Sappho and Alcaeus". Walters Art Museum.
  36. ^ Norwich, John Julius (1990). Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Arts. US: Oxford University Press. pp. 13. ISBN 978-0198691372.
  37. ^ Reitlinger, 243–244, also Vol III, 31–32 for 1960s
  38. ^ a b Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 43.
  39. ^ Barrow, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, p. 197
  40. ^ Andrew Adamson (2006). The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [Crew Commentary] (DVD).
  41. ^ An Exhibition to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1836–1912. New York: Robert Isaacson Gallery, 1962.
  42. ^ Grace Glueck (19 November 1998). "Robert Isaacson, 71: Dealer in French, English Art". The Day. New London. New York Times News Service. pp. B8. Retrieved 30 May 2013.
  43. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 62.
  44. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 58.
  45. ^ Swanson, Alma-Tadema, p. 59.
  46. ^ Reitlinger, 243–244
  47. ^ "Sotheby's – Page Not Found". {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  48. ^ "Sotheby's – Page Not Found". {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  49. ^ Treuherz, Julian (2006). Stephen Farthing (ed.). 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die. London: Quintet Publishing Ltd. p. 492. ISBN 1-84403-563-8.
  50. ^ "Lawrence Alma-Tadema blue plaque". openplaques.org. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  51. ^ "ALMA-TADEMA, SIR LAWRENCE, O.M. (1836–1912)". English Heritage. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  52. ^ Paquette, Lucy (9 September 2013). "James Tissot's house at St. John's Wood, London". /thehammocknovel.wordpress.com. Retrieved 27 November 2016.
  53. ^ "UoB Calmview5: Search results". calmview.bham.ac.uk. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  54. ^ "UoB Calmview5: Search results". calmview.bham.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2020.

Sources edit

  • Ash, Russell: Alma-Tadema, Shire Publications, Aylesbury, 1973, ISBN 978-0-85263-237-6
  • Ash, Russell: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Pavilion Books, London, 1989, ISBN 978-1-85145-422-8; Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York, 1990, ISBN 0-8109-1898-6
  • Barrow, Rosemary: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Phaidon Press Inc, 2001, ISBN 0-7148-3918-3
  • Calinski, Tobias: Catull in Bild und Ton – Untersuchungen zur Catull-Rezeption in Malerei und Komposition, WBG, Darmstadt 2021
  • Reitlinger, Gerald; The Economics of Taste, Vol I: The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760–1960, Barrie and Rockliffe, London, 1961
  • Swanson, Vern G : Alma-Tadema: The Painter of the Victorian Vision of the Ancient World, Ash & Grant, London, 1977, ISBN 978-0-904069-08-2; Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1977, ISBN 0-684-15304-1
  • Swinglehurst, Edmund: Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Thunder Bay Press, Canada, 2001, ISBN 1-57145-269-9 (NOTE: the illustration of The Roses of Heliogabalus in this book is printed the wrong way round!)

External links edit

  • 62 artworks by or after Lawrence Alma-Tadema at the Art UK site
  • Works by Lawrence Alma-Tadema at the Art Renewal Center
  • Global Gallery Bio & Works
  • 218 works by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema at alma-tadema.org
  • Lourens Alma Tadema artworks (paintings, watercolours, drawings), biography, information and signatures
  • Painting Locations at ArtCyclopedia
  • Works by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema in the collection of the Walters Art Museum
  • Alma-Tadema at MuseumSyndicate
  • Alma-Tadema in "History of Art"
  • Alma-Tadema Listening to Homer (1885). A video discussion about the painting from Smarthistory at Khan Academy
  •   Cooper, Thompson (1884). "Alma-Tadema, Lawrence" . Men of the Time  (eleventh ed.). London: George Routledge & Sons. pp. 28–30.
  • Works by or about Lawrence Alma-Tadema at Internet Archive
  • Works by Lawrence Alma-Tadema at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)  
  • Lawrence Alma-Tadema at Library of Congress, with 11 library catalogue records

lawrence, alma, tadema, english, writer, laurence, alma, tadema, born, lourens, alma, tadema, dutch, ˈlʌurəns, ˈɑlmaː, ˈtaːdəˌmaː, january, 1836, june, 1912, dutch, painter, later, settled, united, kingdom, becoming, last, officially, recognised, denizen, 1873. For the English writer see Laurence Alma Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema OM RA RWS ˈ ae l m e ˈ t ae d eɪ m e 1 born Lourens Alma Tadema Dutch ˈlʌurens ˈɑlmaː ˈtaːdeˌmaː 8 January 1836 25 June 1912 was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873 Born in Dronryp the Netherlands and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp Belgium he settled in London England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there SirLawrence Alma TademaOM RA RWSAlma Tadema in 1870BornLourens Alma Tadema 1836 01 08 8 January 1836Dronryp Waadhoeke NetherlandsDied25 June 1912 1912 06 25 aged 76 Wiesbaden German EmpireNationalityDutchBritish denizenKnown forPaintingMovementAcademicismSpousesMarie Pauline Gressin Dumoulin de Boisgirard m 1863 died 1869 wbr Laura Theresa Epps m 1871 died 1909 wbr ChildrenLaurence Alma TademaAnna Alma TademaAwardsOrder of Merit Royal Academician Member of the Royal Watercolour SocietyA painter of mostly classical subjects he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky One of the most popular Victorian painters Alma Tadema was admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and accurate depictions of Classical antiquity but his work fell out of fashion after his death and only since the 1960s has it been appreciated for its importance within Victorian painting Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early life 1 2 Move to Belgium 1 3 Early works 1 4 Move to England 1 5 Victorian painter 1 6 Personality 1 7 Later years 2 Style 3 Reputation and sale prices 4 Archives 5 Gallery 6 See also 7 References and sources 7 1 Notes 7 2 References 7 3 Sources 8 External linksBiography editEarly life edit nbsp Signature of Lourens Alma Tadema nbsp Lourens Alma Tadema s birth house and statue in Dronryp NetherlandsLourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronryp in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands 2 The surname Tadema is an old Frisian patronymic meaning son of Tade while the names Lourens and Alma came from his godfather 3 He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema 1797 1840 the village notary and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer c 1800 1863 His father had three sons from a previous marriage His parents first child died young and the second was Artje c 1834 1876 Lourens sister for whom he had great affection The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the nearby city of Leeuwarden where Pieter s position as a notary would be more lucrative 2 His father died when Lourens was four leaving his mother with five children Lourens his sister and three boys from his father s first marriage His mother had artistic leanings and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children s education He received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half brothers It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer but in 1851 at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown Diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure drawing and painting Left to his own devices he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist 3 Move to Belgium edit In 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium where he studied early Dutch and Flemish art under Gustaf Wappers During Alma Tadema s four years as a registered student at the academy he won several awards nbsp The Education of the Children of Clovis 1861 oil on canvas 127 176 8 cm private collection Queen Clotilde wife of King Clovis is shown training her three young children the art of hurling the axe to avenge the death of her father 4 Before leaving the academy towards the end of 1855 he became assistant to the painter and professor Louis Lodewijk Jan de Taeye whose courses in history and historical costume he had greatly enjoyed at the academy Although de Taeye was not an outstanding painter Alma Tadema respected him and became his studio assistant working with him for three years De Taeye introduced him to books that influenced his desire to portray Merovingian subjects early in his career He was encouraged to depict historical accuracy in his paintings a trait for which the artist became known De Taeye s greatest influence on his young pupil was his interest in ancient civilisations particularly the Egyptians first displayed in The Dying Cleopatra begun in 1859 but later destroyed by the artist and The Sad Father or The Unfavourable Oracle Opus X painted in 1858 Originally a large processional painting in an architectural setting it was later cut down to a smaller scale to show only three figures this reduced painting is now in the Johannesburg Art Gallery Another section of The Sad Father was modified by the artist ten years later in 1869 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1871 under the title The Grand Chamberlain to Sesostris the Great Of the large original painting Sir Edmund William Gosse will later say As the first of a series of Egyptian pictures some of which are to be counted among the highest expressions of Alma Tadema s genius The Unfavourable Oracle is a work of great interest 5 nbsp Preparatory studies for The Contrary Oracle showing Alma Tadema s early interest in Ancient Egypt as well as his attention to detail and historical accuracy The artist planned two other Egyptian themed paintings in the years 1857 and 1858 named Going to the Oracle and The Contrary Oracle of which a number of preparatory drawings that were once in Gosse s possession survive to this day These paintings were either never executed or else destroyed as during his student years Alma Tadema frequently destroyed or painted over works that he was unhappy with As the artist s contemporary biographer Percy Cross Standing noted of Lawrence Alma Tadema s early paintings of Egyptian subjects in particular So careful at all times about detail he took extraordinary care in the preparation of his preliminary sketches for these pictures When asked why he had chosen to paint Egyptian themes Alma Tadema said Where else should I have begun as soon as I had become acquainted with the life of the ancients The first thing a child learns of ancient history is about the court of Pharaoh and if we go back to the source of art and science must we not return to Egypt 6 Several of his early Egyptian paintings contain precise depictions of objects and settings which reflect the artist s close study of an important reference book of his era Sir John Gardner Wilkinson s The Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians published in 1837 nbsp Early uncredited work by Alma Tadema collaborating with Hendrik Leys at Antwerp City HallAlma Tadema left Taeye s studio in November 1858 returning to Leeuwarden before settling in Antwerp where he began working with the painter Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys 7 whose studio was one of the most highly regarded in Belgium Under his guidance Alma Tadema painted his first major work The Education of the children of Clovis 1861 This painting created a sensation among critics and artists when it was exhibited that year at the Artistic Congress in Antwerp It is said to have laid the foundation of his fame and reputation 8 Alma Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected he was critical of the treatment of marble which he compared to cheese 8 He collaborated with Hendrik Leys on the series of wall paintings in the Leys Hall on the second floor of Antwerp City Hall which depict significant moments in the history of The Netherlands Alma Tadema took this criticism very seriously and it led him to improve his technique and to become the world s foremost painter of marble and variegated granite Despite any reproaches from his master The Education of the Children of Clovis was well received by critics and artists alike and was eventually purchased and subsequently given to King Leopold of Belgium 9 In 1860 he befriended the Anglo Dutch Dommersen family of artists in Utrecht In 1862 he made pencil drawings of Mrs Cornelia Dommershuizen and one of her sons Thomas Hendrik whose brothers were the painters Pieter Cornelis Dommersen and Cornelis Christiaan Dommersen citation needed Early works edit nbsp Egyptian Chess Players 1865 oil on wood 39 8 55 8 cm Private collection Merovingian subjects were the painter s favourites up to the mid 1860s However Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal so he switched to themes of life in ancient Egypt which were more popular In 1862 Alma Tadema left Leys s studio and started his own career establishing himself as a significant classical subject artist nbsp This is our corner A portrait of the artist s daughters Anna and Laurense Alma Tadema 1873 1863 was to alter the course of Alma Tadema s personal and professional life on 3 January his invalid nbsp The Mirror 1868mother died and on 24 September he was married in Antwerp City Hall to Marie Pauline Gressin Dumoulin de Boisgirard the daughter of Eugene Gressin Dumoulin a French journalist living near Brussels 10 Nothing is known of their meeting and little of Pauline herself as Alma Tadema never spoke about her after her death in 1869 Her image appears in a number of oils though he painted her portrait only three times the most notable appearing in My studio 1867 11 The couple had three children Their eldest and only son lived only a few months dying of smallpox Their two daughters Laurence 1865 1940 and Anna 1867 1943 both had artistic leanings the former in literature the latter in art Neither would marry Alma Tadema and his wife spent their honeymoon in Florence Rome Naples and Pompeii This his first visit to Italy developed his interest in depicting the life of ancient Greece and Rome especially the latter since he found new inspiration in the ruins of Pompeii which fascinated him and would inspire much of his work in the coming decades There he met Geremia Discanno an Italian painter who had been commissioned by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli to reproduce the brightly painted frescoes being uncovered in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum before they faded from exposure He would consult Discanno a number of times before Discanno s death in 1907 to ensure his paintings of antiquity would reflect the lifestyle of residents of the Greco Roman world accurately 12 During the summer of 1864 Tadema met Ernest Gambart the most influential print publisher and art dealer of the period Gambart was highly impressed with the work of Tadema who was then painting Egyptian Chess Players 1865 The dealer recognising at once the unusual gifts of the young painter gave him an order for twenty four pictures and arranged for three of Tadema s paintings to be shown in London 13 In 1865 Tadema relocated to Brussels where he was named a knight of the Order of Leopold On 28 May 1869 after years of ill health Pauline died of smallpox at Schaerbeek in Belgium aged 32 14 Her death left Tadema disconsolate and depressed He ceased painting for nearly four months His sister Artje who lived with the family helped with the two daughters then aged five and two Artje took over the role of housekeeper and remained with the family until 1873 when she married 14 During the summer Tadema himself began to suffer from a medical problem which doctors in Brussels were unable to diagnose Gambart eventually advised him to go to England for another medical opinion Soon after his arrival in London in December 1869 Alma Tadema was invited to the home of the painter Ford Madox Brown There he met Laura Theresa Epps who was seventeen years old and fell in love with her at first sight 15 Move to England edit nbsp The Tepidarium 1881 oil on panel 24 33 cm Lady Lever Art Gallery Port Sunlight Lounging next to the tepidarium a curvaceous beauty takes her rest She holds a strigil in her right hand The outbreak of the Franco Prussian War in July 1870 encouraged Alma Tadema to leave the continent and move to London His infatuation with Laura Epps played a great part in his relocation to England and in addition Gambart felt that the move would be advantageous to the artist s career In stating his reasons for the move Tadema simply said I lost my first wife a French lady with whom I married in 1863 in 1869 Having always had a great predilection for London the only place where up till then my work had met with buyers I decided to leave the continent and go to settle in England where I have found a true home nbsp Lawrence Alma Tadema by J P Mayall from Artists at Home photogravure published 1884 Department of Image Collections National Gallery of Art Library Washington DCWith his small daughters and sister Artje Alma Tadema arrived in London at the beginning of September 1870 The painter wasted no time in contacting Laura and it was arranged that he would give her painting lessons During one of these he proposed marriage As he was then thirty four and Laura was now only eighteen her father was initially opposed to the idea Dr Epps finally agreed on the condition that they should wait until they knew each other better They married in July 1871 Laura under her married name also won a high reputation as an artist and appears in numerous of Alma Tadema s canvases after their marriage The Women of Amphissa 1887 being a notable example This second marriage was enduring and happy though childless and Laura became stepmother to Anna and Laurence Anna became a painter and Laurence became a novelist 16 In England he initially adopted the name Laurence Alma Tadema instead of Lourens Alma Tadema and later used the more English spelling Lawrence for his forename He also incorporated Alma into his surname so that he appeared at the beginning of exhibition catalogues under A rather than under T 3 He did not actually hyphenate his last name but it was done by others and this has since become the convention 17 Victorian painter edit nbsp The Roses of Heliogabalus 1888 oil on canvas 132 1 213 7 cm private collection As it was painted during the winter Tadema arranged to have roses sent weekly from the French Riviera for four months to ensure the accuracy of each petal nbsp Unconscious Rivals 1893 oil on panel 45 63 cm Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery Alma Tadema s female figures have a slightly bored pleasure seeking attitude as if they were pampered courtesans 18 There is little action in Alma Tadema s paintings The composition is balanced by the flowers in bloom After his arrival in England where he was to spend the rest of his life Alma Tadema s career was one of continued success He became one of the most famous and highly paid artists of his time acknowledged and rewarded By 1871 he had met and befriended most of the major Pre Raphaelite painters and it was in part due to their influence that the artist brightened his palette varied his hues and lightened his brushwork In 1872 Alma Tadema organised his paintings into an identification system by including an opus number under his signature and assigning his earlier pictures numbers as well Portrait of my sister Artje painted in 1851 is numbered opus I while two months before his death he completed Preparations in the Coliseum opus CCCCVIII Such a system made it more difficult for fakes to be passed off as originals 19 In 1873 Queen Victoria in Council by letters patent made Alma Tadema and his wife what are still up to the present time the last British denizens created the legal process has theoretically not yet been abolished in the United Kingdom with some limited special rights otherwise only accorded to and enjoyed by British subjects that is those would now be called British citizens The previous year he and his wife made a journey on the continent that lasted five and a half months and took them through Brussels Germany and Italy In Italy Alma Tadema was able to take in the ancient ruins again this time he purchased several photographs mostly of the ruins which began his immense collection of archival material used in the completion of future paintings In January 1876 he rented a studio in Rome The family returned to London in April visiting the Paris Salon on their way back In London he regularly met with fellow artist Emil Fuchs 20 21 Among the most important of his pictures during this period was An Audience at Agrippa s 1876 When an admirer of the painting offered to pay a substantial sum for a painting with a similar subject Alma Tadema simply turned the emperor around to show him leaving in After the Audience On 19 June 1879 Alma Tadema was made a Royal Academician Three years later a major retrospective of his entire oeuvre was organised at the Grosvenor Gallery in London including 185 of his pictures In 1883 he returned to Rome and Pompeii where further excavations had taken place since his last visit He spent a significant amount of time studying the site going there daily These excursions gave him an ample source of subject matter as he began to further his knowledge of daily Roman life At times however he integrated so many objects into his paintings that some said they resembled museum catalogues One of his most famous paintings is The Roses of Heliogabalus 1888 based on an episode from the life of the debauched Roman emperor Elagabalus Heliogabalus the painting depicts the emperor suffocating his guests at an orgy under a cascade of rose petals The blossoms depicted were sent weekly to the artist s London studio from the French Riviera for four months during the winter of 1887 1888 nbsp One of Alma Tadema s contributions to The Bible and Its Story Taught By One Thousand Picture Lessons 1910 depicting Josephs s return to his peopleAmong Alma Tadema s works of this period are An Earthly Paradise 1891 Unconscious Rivals 1893 Spring 1894 The Coliseum 1896 and The Baths of Caracalla 1899 Although Alma Tadema s fame rests on his paintings set in antiquity he also painted portraits landscapes and watercolours and made some etchings himself Many more were made of his paintings by others Personality edit nbsp Spring 1894 oil on canvas 179 2 80 3 cm J Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles a For all the quiet charm and erudition of his paintings Alma Tadema himself preserved a youthful sense of mischief He was childlike in his practical jokes and in his sudden bursts of bad temper which could as suddenly subside into an engaging smile In his personal life Alma Tadema was an extrovert and had a warm personality 23 He has been said to have had most of the characteristics of a child coupled with the traits of a consummate professional A perfectionist he remained in all respects a diligent if somewhat obsessive and pedantic worker He was an excellent businessman and one of the wealthiest artists of the nineteenth century Alma Tadema was as firm in money matters as he was with the quality of his work 24 As a man Lawrence Alma Tadema was a robust fun loving and rather portly gentleman There was not a hint of the delicate artist about him he was a cheerful lover of wine women and parties Later years edit Alma Tadema s output decreased with time partly on account of health but also because of his obsession with decorating his new home to which he moved in 1883 Nevertheless he continued to exhibit throughout the 1880s and 1890s receiving accolades including the medal of Honour at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 election to an honorary membership of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1890 and the Great Gold Medal at the International Exposition in Brussels of 1897 In 1899 he was knighted in England only the eighth artist from the Continent to receive this honour He assisted with organizing the British section at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris as well as exhibiting two works that earned him the Grand Prix Diploma He also assisted with the St Louis World s Fair of 1904 where he was well received nbsp Alma Tadema standing next to a portrait bust of himDuring this time Alma Tadema was very active with theatre design and production designing many costumes He also began to design furniture often modelled after Pompeian or Egyptian motifs as well as illustrations textiles and picture frames In late 1902 he visited Egypt 25 These other interests influenced his paintings as he often incorporated some of his furniture designs and female costumes into the composition Through his last period of creativity Alma Tadema continued to produce paintings which repeated the successful formula of women on marble terraces overlooking the sea such as in Silver Favourites 1903 26 Between 1903 and his death Alma Tadema painted less but still produced ambitious paintings such as The Finding of Moses 1904 27 On 15 August 1909 Alma Tadema s wife Laura died at the age of fifty seven The grief stricken widower outlived his second wife by less than three years His last major composition was Preparation in the Coliseum 1912 28 In the summer of 1912 Alma Tadema was accompanied by his daughter Anna to Kaiserhof Spa Wiesbaden Germany to be treated for stomach ulcers 29 He died there on 28 June 1912 at the age of seventy six He was buried in the crypt of St Paul s Cathedral in London 29 Style edit nbsp Silver Favourites 1903 oil on wood 69 1 42 2 cm Manchester Art Gallery An example of Alma Tadema s contrasting gleaming white marble against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea 30 The artist obliterated the middle ground and the foreground is abruptly juxtaposed with the distant horizon creating a dramatic effect 31 Alma Tadema s works are remarkable for their depiction of flowers textures and hard reflecting substances like metals pottery and especially marble leading to the nickname marbellous painter His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters From early in his career Alma Tadema was particularly concerned with architectural accuracy 32 often painting objects from museums such as the British Museum in London He also took many images from books and amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy which he used to achieve the most precise detail in his painting Alma Tadema was a perfectionist repeatedly reworking parts of paintings until he found them satisfactory One story relates that after one of his paintings was rejected he gave the canvas to a maid for a table cover He was sensitive to every detail and architectural line in his settings He would often paint from life using fresh flowers from across Europe and even Africa rushing to paint the flowers before they withered His commitment to veracity earned him recognition but also led some critics to accuse him of pedantry Alma Tadema s work has been linked with that of European Symbolist painters 33 He influenced European painters such as Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff 33 who incorporated classical motifs as well as Alma Tadema s unconventional compositional devices such as abrupt cut off at the edge of the canvas Like Alma Tadema they also employ coded imagery to suggest hidden meanings 33 Reputation and sale prices edit nbsp The Finding of Moses 1904 oil on canvas 137 7 213 4 cm private collection It includes a number of archaeologically precise objects and inscriptions the results of Tadema s diligent research After Tadema spent two years working on the painting his wife pointed out wryly that the infant Moses was now a toddler and need no longer be carried 34 nbsp Sappho and Alcaeus completed in 1881 depicts Sappho and her companions listening as the poet Alcaeus of Mytilene plays a kithara on the island of Lesbos 35 Walters Art Museum Alma Tadema was one of the most popular painters of the Victorian era 36 and among the most financially successful though never matching Edwin Henry Landseer For over sixty years he gave his audience exactly what they wanted distinctive elaborate paintings of beautiful people in classical settings His detailed reconstructions of ancient Rome with languid men and women posed against white marble in dazzling sunlight provided his audience with a glimpse of an exotic world of titillating luxury and intimate drama As with other painters the reproduction rights for prints were often worth more than the canvas For example a painting together with its rights may have been sold to Gambart for 10 000 in 1874 then in 1903 when Alma Tadema s prices were actually higher it was sold again without rights for 2 625 Typical prices were between 2 000 and 3 000 in the 1880s but at least three works sold for between 5 250 and 6 060 in the 1900s Prices held well until the general collapse of the market for Victorian art in the early 1920s when they fell to the hundreds where they remained until the 1960s by 1969 4 600 had been reached again equivalent to about 700 in 1900 adjusted for inflation 37 The last years of Alma Tadema s life saw the rise of Post Impressionism Fauvism Cubism and Futurism all of which he disapproved As his pupil John Collier wrote it is impossible to reconcile the art of Alma Tadema with that of Matisse Gauguin and Picasso 38 His artistic legacy almost vanished As the taste of the public and the artistic elite turned to twentieth century modernism it became fashionable to denouce his style John Ruskin declared him the worst painter of the 19th century and one critic considered his paintings about worthy enough to adorn bourbon boxes After this brief period of condemnation he was consigned to obscurity for the next half century Only since the 1960s has Alma Tadema s work been rediscovered for its historical importance in the evolution of English art He is now regarded by whom as one of the principal classical subject painters of the nineteenth century whose works demonstrate the care and exactitude of an era mesmerised by trying to visualise the past some of which was being recovered through archaeological research Alma Tadema s highly detailed depictions of Roman life and architecture based on meticulous archaeological research led Hollywood directors to his paintings as models for their cinematic ancient world in films such as D W Griffith s Intolerance 1916 Ben Hur 1926 and Cleopatra 1934 The most notable was Cecil B DeMille s epic The Ten Commandments 1956 38 its co writer Jesse Lasky Jr described how the director would spread out prints of Alma Tadema paintings to guide his set designers The design of the Oscar winning Roman epic Gladiator 2000 took its main inspiration from his paintings 39 as well as that of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in The Chronicles of Narnia 2005 40 In 1962 New York art dealer Robert Isaacson mounted the first show of Alma Tadema s work in fifty years 41 42 and by the late 1960s the revival of interest in Victorian painting gained impetus with a number of well attended exhibitions 43 Allen Funt the creator and host of the American television show Candid Camera was a collector of Alma Tadema paintings during the 20th century nadir of the artist s reputation 44 in a few years he bought 35 works about ten per cent of Alma Tadema s output After Funt was robbed by his accountant he was forced to sell his collection at Sotheby s London in November 1973 45 contributing to the revived interest in the artist citation needed In 1960 the Newman Gallery was unable to sell or even give away one of his most celebrated works The Finding of Moses 1904 The initial purchaser had paid 5 250 in 1904 and subsequent sales were for 861 in 1935 265 in 1942 and it was bought in at 252 in 1960 having failed to meet its reserve 46 But when the same picture was auctioned at Christies New York in May 1995 it sold for 1 75 million On 4 November 2010 it sold for 35 922 500 to an undisclosed bidder at Sotheby s New York a new record for any Victorian artist 47 On 5 May 2011 the painting The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra 41 BC was sold at the same house for 29 2 million 48 Alma Tadema s The Tepidarium 1881 is included in the 2006 book 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die Julian Treuherz Keeper of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool describes it as an exquisitely painted picture which carries a strong erotic charge rare for a Victorian painting of the nude 49 A blue plaque unveiled in 1975 This plaque commemorates Alma Tadema at 44 Grove End Road St John s Wood his home from 1886 until his death in 1912 50 51 52 Archives editThe Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham holds several archive collections relating to Alma Tadema including letters artwork and photography 53 54 Gallery edit nbsp The etcher and printmaker Leopold Lowenstam 1842 1898 a friend and colleague of Lawrence Alma Tadema nbsp A Study Aberdeen Archives Gallery and Museums nbsp Fredegund by the Deathbed of Bishop Praetextatus 1864 Pushkin Museum nbsp Flower market in Roman times with a cactus and two agaves an anachronism as they are originally American plants 1868 Manchester Art Gallery nbsp The Cymbal Player 1872 Aberdeen Archives Gallery and Museums nbsp A Garden Altar 1879 Aberdeen Archives Gallery and Museums nbsp Music cabinet designed by Alma Tadema 1884 85 nbsp The Women of Amphissa 1887 Clark Art Institute nbsp A Dedication to Bacchus 1889 Kunsthalle Hamburg nbsp An Eloquent Silence 1890 nbsp Portrait of Ignacy Jan Paderewski 1891 Oil on canvas 45 7 58 4 cm National Museum Warsaw In his portraits he employed psychological realism to reveal the sitter s personality See also editJohn William GodwardReferences and sources editNotes edit The painting relates the Victorian custom of children collecting flowers on May Day back to an Ancient Roman spring festival perhaps Cerealia Floralia or Ambarvalia although the details depicted in the painting do not correspond to any single Roman festival It is one of Tadema s most famous and popular works it took him four years to complete The models for many of the participants and spectators were Tadema s friends and members of his family 22 References edit G M Miller BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names Oxford UP 1971 p 4 a b Swanson Alma Tadema p 8 a b c Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 10 Swanson Alma Tadema p 129 Dumas Francois Guillaume 1882 Illustrated biographies of modern artists Paris Librairie d Art Ludovic Baschet p 78 Standing Percy Cross 1905 Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema O M R A London Paris New York Melbourne Cassell and Company limited pp 33 34 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 15 a b Swanson Alma Tadema p 12 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 16 Swanson Alma Tadema p 13 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 20 Vinella Pasquale Roberto July 2021 Geremia Discanno il pittore di Pompei Barletta Italy Editrice Rotas ISBN 978 88 94983 81 4 Swanson Alma Tadema p 15 a b Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 41 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 60 Alma Tadema Who s Who Vol 59 1907 p 35 Ash Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema p 3 Swanson Alma Tadema p 52 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 62 Quoted on Tate website Ronald Alley Catalogue of the Tate Gallery s Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke Bernet London 1981 pp 227 8 Emil Fuchs 1866 1929 Swanson Alma Tadema p 130 Swanson Alma Tadema p 35 Swanson Alma Tadema p 34 Court Circular The Times No 36929 London 19 November 1902 p 10 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 179 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 186 Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema Preparation in the Coliseum 1912 Vivat Crescat Floreat Vcrfl wordpress com 4 March 2012 Retrieved 10 September 2013 a b Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 194 Swanson Alma Tadema p 131 Swanson Alma Tadema p 54 Calinski Catull in Bild und Ton 98 141 a b c Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 192 Swanson Alma Tadema p 29 Sappho and Alcaeus Walters Art Museum Norwich John Julius 1990 Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Arts US Oxford University Press pp 13 ISBN 978 0198691372 Reitlinger 243 244 also Vol III 31 32 for 1960s a b Swanson Alma Tadema p 43 Barrow Lawrence Alma Tadema p 197 Andrew Adamson 2006 The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe Crew Commentary DVD An Exhibition to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema 1836 1912 New York Robert Isaacson Gallery 1962 Grace Glueck 19 November 1998 Robert Isaacson 71 Dealer in French English Art The Day New London New York Times News Service pp B8 Retrieved 30 May 2013 Swanson Alma Tadema p 62 Swanson Alma Tadema p 58 Swanson Alma Tadema p 59 Reitlinger 243 244 Sotheby s Page Not Found a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a Cite uses generic title help Sotheby s Page Not Found a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a Cite uses generic title help Treuherz Julian 2006 Stephen Farthing ed 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die London Quintet Publishing Ltd p 492 ISBN 1 84403 563 8 Lawrence Alma Tadema blue plaque openplaques org Retrieved 27 November 2016 ALMA TADEMA SIR LAWRENCE O M 1836 1912 English Heritage Retrieved 17 August 2012 Paquette Lucy 9 September 2013 James Tissot s house at St John s Wood London thehammocknovel wordpress com Retrieved 27 November 2016 UoB Calmview5 Search results calmview bham ac uk Retrieved 29 March 2021 UoB Calmview5 Search results calmview bham ac uk Retrieved 17 December 2020 Sources edit Ash Russell Alma Tadema Shire Publications Aylesbury 1973 ISBN 978 0 85263 237 6 Ash Russell Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema Pavilion Books London 1989 ISBN 978 1 85145 422 8 Harry N Abrams Inc New York 1990 ISBN 0 8109 1898 6 Barrow Rosemary Lawrence Alma Tadema Phaidon Press Inc 2001 ISBN 0 7148 3918 3 Calinski Tobias Catull in Bild und Ton Untersuchungen zur Catull Rezeption in Malerei und Komposition WBG Darmstadt 2021 Reitlinger Gerald The Economics of Taste Vol I The Rise and Fall of Picture Prices 1760 1960 Barrie and Rockliffe London 1961 Swanson Vern G Alma Tadema The Painter of the Victorian Vision of the Ancient World Ash amp Grant London 1977 ISBN 978 0 904069 08 2 Charles Scribner s Sons New York 1977 ISBN 0 684 15304 1 Swinglehurst Edmund Lawrence Alma Tadema Thunder Bay Press Canada 2001 ISBN 1 57145 269 9 NOTE the illustration of The Roses of Heliogabalus in this book is printed the wrong way round External links edit nbsp Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica article Alma Tadema Sir Laurence nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lawrence Alma Tadema 62 artworks by or after Lawrence Alma Tadema at the Art UK site Works by Lawrence Alma Tadema at the Art Renewal Center Global Gallery Bio amp Works 218 works by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema at alma tadema org Lourens Alma Tadema artworks paintings watercolours drawings biography information and signatures Painting Locations at ArtCyclopedia Works by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema in the collection of the Walters Art Museum Alma Tadema at MuseumSyndicate Alma Tadema in History of Art Alma Tadema Listening to Homer 1885 A video discussion about the painting from Smarthistory at Khan Academy nbsp Cooper Thompson 1884 Alma Tadema Lawrence Men of the Time eleventh ed London George Routledge amp Sons pp 28 30 Works by or about Lawrence Alma Tadema at Internet Archive Works by Lawrence Alma Tadema at LibriVox public domain audiobooks nbsp Lawrence Alma Tadema at Library of Congress with 11 library catalogue records Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Lawrence Alma Tadema amp oldid 1194422209, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.