Sir
Lawrence Alma-Tadema Biography
Lawrence Alma Tadema (born Laurens Tadema) was Dutch, and only came to England when in his mid-30s, in 1869. He was a great
Anglophile, and became very much part of the English establishment, becoming ARA in
1876, RA in 1879 and gaining a knighthood in 1899. Early
influences on his art included George Ebers, a famous Egyptologist, and he painted some ancient Egyptian scenes, most notably Pastimes in Ancient
Egypt in 1864. However, after a visit to Pompeii, he painted above all the life of ancient Greece and Rome, concentrating on the domestic and the
homely rather than the dramatic. His paintings were commissioned en masse by the art dealer Ernest Gambart, who encouraged him to concentrate on
the highly saleable classical paintings.
In London, after the death of his first wife, Alma Tadema married Laura Epps, who appears in many of his pictures (along with his daughters later
on), with curly red or brown hair, rosy cheeks, and solid rather than fine-boned features. Another characteristic Alma Tadema feature is marble,
and he is the supreme painter of that material. His pictures are full of accurate archaeological detail, praised highly by Ruskin, although the
famous critic had good and bad things to say about Alma Tadema. The ambitious Spring (1895), with a procession of dozens of children and women
bearing flowers and musical instruments, overlooked by marble buildings and spectators tossing more flowers, was described by the Magazine of Art
as "a wonderful picture of color, figures, movement, blue sky, marble, a hundred beautiful accessories exquisitely painted... he has improved on
the splendor of the buildings as he has improved on the demeanor of the populace... there is here no hint of 'excessive merriment, drinking and
lascivious games'; all is perfectly respectable, gorgeous and exquisitely beautiful." His paintings were without complicated themes or moral
lessons and they were criticized for being lacking in any spirituality, and later for showing 'Victorians dressed up in ancient costume' (poor
Laura Tadema, his frequent model, was said to be 'too fat in the ankles'). During his lifetime, Alma Tadema's work was very popular with the
public, but his reputation declined rapidly after his death.
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