Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a Dutch-born painter of scenes from everyday life in the ancient world whose work was immensely popular in its time. His depictions of Classical antiquity brought him the admiration of art collectors and critics.
Background
Lawrence Alma-Tadema was born on June 25, 1912, in Dronrijp, Netherlands. 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.
Education
It was intended that Lawrence Alma-Tadema 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.
Alma-Tadema studied art at the Antwerp Academy (1852–58) under the Belgian historical painter Hendrik Leys, assisting the painter in 1859 with frescoes for the Stadhuis (town hall) in Antwerp.
With the help of Leys Alma-Tadema produced his first major work 'The Education of the Children of Clovis' (1861). The piece was well-received by critics and the public, eventually being presented to King Leopold of Belgium.
1863 marked a turning point for Alma-Tadema. His early studies had fired his passion for the ancient world (albeit it mainly from Merovingian subjects) whilst he had learned to pay attention to detail in terms of detailing and historically accurate styling. However, his marriage in September 1863 and the honeymoon that followed touring through Italy changed the direction of his inspiration. He and his new wife toured extensively, but their time amongst the ruins of Pompeii fascinated him. The veins of inspiration here proved the muse for much of the work throughout his lifetime.
In 1864 the art dealer Gambart first saw Alma-Tadema's work and was deeply impressed, giving the artist major commissions. Tadema's paintings began to appear in Gambart's 'French Gallery' in London and in 1869 he first exhibited in the Royal Academy. In 1870 he moved to London. British patronage and the disruption of the French art world by the Franco Prussian War decided him against Paris.
In 1869, Alma-Tadema lost his wife of six years to smallpox. Disconsolate and depressed, he ceased painting and his health was failing. Under the advice of his physician, he traveled to England for a medical diagnosis, where he was invited to the house of a fellow painter, Ford Madox Brown.
It was during 1870 that Alma-Tadema moved to London. He felt that a move to the United Kingdom would be helpful to his career. It was here that he was finally able to settle once more and to call London his home. Alma-Tadema achieved huge artistic success while living in London. He was one of the most well paid and highly respected artists of his generation. During this period, his most famous painting was that of An Audience at Agrippa's that he painted in 1875.
His most famous painting, The Roses of Heliogabalus painted in 1888, was based upon the life of Elagabalus, a Roman Emperor. This image depicts the Emperor suffocating his guests in an assumed orgy. Rose petals can be seen descending from the sky. In 1891 he painted An Earthly Paradise, in 1893 Unconscious Rivals, Spring in 1894 and The Baths of Caracalla in 1899. He painted landscapes, portraits, and even watercolours.
Alma-Tadema spent the next part of his life traveling through Europe, and enjoying the continued success of his paintings. In 1912, Alma-Tadema traveled to Germany to undergo treatment for stomach ulcer, and died in Germany at the age of 76.
A Sculpture Gallery in Rome at the Time of Agrippa
1867
A Birth Chamber, Seventeenth Century
1868
The Flower Market
1868
The Crossing of the River Berizina
1869
Egyptian Juggler
1870
From An Absent One
1871
Portrait Of Miss Laura Theresa Epps
1871
Death of the Pharaoh Firstborn son
1872
The Last Roses
1872
This is our Corner
1872
A Roman Artist
1874
Ninety four in the Shade
1876
Between Hope and Fear
1876
Architecture in Ancient Rome
1877
Sculptors in Ancient Rome
1877
Not at Home Sir
1879
Interrupted
1880
A Harvest Festival (A Dancing Bacchante at Harvest Time)
1880
A Female Figure Resting (Dolce far Niente)
1882
An Oleander
1882
Anna Alma Tadema
1883
Welcome Footsteps
1883
The Roman Potter
1884
The Drawing Room at Townshend House
1885
A Reading from Homer
1885
The Triumph of Titus
1885
The Apodyterium
1886
Mrs. Frank D. Millet
1886
The Roses of Heliogabalus
1888
The Frigidarium
1890
The Poet Gallus Dreaming
1892
Comparisons
1892
Courtship the Proposal
1892
Spring
1894
Love's Jewelled Fetter
1895
A Difference of Opinion
1896
"Nobody Asked You, Sir!" She Said
1896
Views
Alma-Tadema painted pictures without deep-meaning or significance, essentially his work was decorative. His painting of metal objects was brilliant, but what really made him a successful artist was his ability to paint marble, so popular in those times of nostalgia for ancient civilizations. His work tended to be frozen moments in time and to be photographic in nature, rather like that of Tissot.
He read many books on the subject and visited museums to make sure that his buildings and objects that he painted were indeed an accurate portrayal and a perfect composition of the original. Although not a symbolist painter, his work has been compared to many of the great symbolist painters based in Europe, including Fernand Khnopff and Gustav Klimt.
Quotations:
"As the Sun colors flowers, so art colors life."
"Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration."
Membership
Royal Academy of Arts
,
United Kingdom
Royal Watercolour Society
Personality
Alma-Tadema was a sociable extrovert, highly popular with his peers, and the artistic soulmate of Lord Leighton. Superficially he was uncomplicated. He was an affectionate family man, and a devoted husband. He was a boisterous individual with a lively sense of humour, a liking for mechanical toys, and practical jokes. He was extremely ambitious, both socially and materially, and had a strong sentimental streak. He was very hardworking and focussed, one of the few overt signs of his puritanical Nonconformist upbringing.
Alma-Tadema was a perfectionist. He worked assiduously to make the most of his paintings, often repeatedly reworking parts of paintings before he found them satisfactory to his own high standards. One humorous story relates that one of his paintings was rejected and instead of keeping it, he gave the canvas to a maid who used it as her table cover. He was sensitive to every detail and architectural line of his paintings, as well as the settings he was depicting. For many of the objects in his paintings, he would depict what was in front of him, using fresh flowers imported from across the continent and even from Africa, rushing to finish the paintings before the flowers died. It was this commitment to veracity that earned him recognition but also caused many of his adversaries to take up arms against his almost encyclopaedic works.
Physical Characteristics:
Julian Hawthorne described Alma-Tadema in his book: "A rather short, broad, blond personage stood before us; a broad forehead, pale grey eyes with eyeglasses, a big humorous mouth barely hidden by a thin, short, yellow beard. His front face was unremarkable; but his profile was as fine as an antique cameo… The vitality and energy of his aspect and movements and the volume of his voice were stunning, but this was in the first element only; he was very much alive, but in general demeanor and speech there was a soft incisiveness, almost a subtlety, with a variety of intonation and emphasis, and expressive gestures, and intense earnestness now and then. But his great delighted laugh constantly recurred, resounding through the beautiful rooms….Withal he was civilized and fine to the bone, and his utmost boisterousness never struck a wrong note."
Connections
In 1863 Lawrence Alma-Tadema was married to Marie-Pauline Gressin, the daughter of Eugene Gressin, a French journalist of royal descent living near Brussels. Nothing is known of their meeting and little of Pauline herself, as Alma-Tadema never spoke about her after her death in 1869. The couple had three children. Their eldest and only son lived only a few months dying of smallpox. Their two daughters, Laurence (1864-1940) and Anna (1867-1943), both had artistic leanings: the former in literature, the latter in art. Neither would marry.
In London he met the seventeen years old Laura Theresa Epps and fell in love with her at first sight. They married in July 1871. This second marriage was enduring and happy, though childless, and Laura became stepmother to Anna and Laurence.