Lawrence Alma-Tadema by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

His role was to represent the anecdotal end of the spectrum of Victorian classicism, standing at the opposite pole to Albert Moore, who used the idiom to express almost purely formal and abstract values, with the other two leading exponents, Frederic Leighton and E. In 1870, following the death of his wife and the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the artist himself moved to London, remarrying in 1871 and taking British nationality two years later.įrom then on Alma-Tadema was a popular fixture in the London art establishment. In 1864 Alma-Tadema made his debut at the Paris Salon and met the powerful art dealer Ernest Gambart, who gave him commissions and began to show his work in London. In 1863 he married and spent his honeymoon in Italy, an experience that profoundly influenced his development by exposing him to the art and architecture of classical antiquity. This direction was confirmed when he joined the studio of the historical painter Hendrik Leys in 1859.ĭuring his early years Alma-Tadema was attracted to Merovingian and Egyptian subjects, but by the later 1860s he was exploring the Graeco-Roman world that would remain his favourite pictorial territory for the remainder of his career. During this formative period he also met two antiquarians, Georg Ebers and Louis de Taye, who encouraged his interest in the archaeologically authentic rendering of historical themes. Born at Dronrijp, Friesland, the son of a notary, he studied at the Antwerp Academy in the 1850s. This picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1906, when the artist was at the zenith of his career. No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield.' I strove against the stream and all in vain: ' Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are seal'd:

Lawrence Alma-Tadema by Lawrence Alma-Tadema