SIR LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA 1836-1912

Pre-Raphaelite painter most famous for his paintings of female characters from mythology.

 

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - His first great success was a picture of "The Education of the Children of Clovis" (1861), which was exhibited at Antwerp. In the following year he received his first gold medal at Amsterdam. The "Education of the Children of Clovis" (three young children of Clovis and Clotilde practicing the art of hurling the ax in the presence of their widowed mother, who is training them to avenge the murder of their own parent) was one of a series of Merovingian pictures, of which the finest was the "Fredegonda " of 1878 (exhibited in 1880).

In 1863 Alma-Tadema married a French lady, and lived at Brussels till 1869, when she died, leaving him a widower with two daughters, Laurence and Anna, both of whom afterwards made reputations the former in literature, the latter in art. In 1869 he sent from Brussels to the Royal Academy two pictures, "Un Amateur romain " and " Une Danse pyrrhique," which were followed by three pictures, including "Un Jongleur," in 1870, when he came to London. By this time, besides his Dutch and Belgian distinctions, he had been awarded medals at the Paris Salon of 1864 and the Exposition Universelle of 1867. In 1871 he married Miss Laura Epps, an English lady of a talented family, who, under her married name, also won a high reputation as an artist. After his arrival in England Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. Amongst the most important of his pictures during this period were " The Vintage Festival " (1870), " The Picture Gallery " and " The Sculpture Gallery " (1875), " An Audience at Agrippa's" (1876), " The Seasons" (1877), " Sappho " (1881), " The Way to the Temple " (1883), his diploma work, " Hadrian in Britain" (1884), " The Apodyterium (1886), "The Woman of Amphissa " (1887),. one of his most famous paintings was The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888),( based on an episode from the life of the infamously debauched Roman Emperor Heliogabalus), "An Earthly Paradise" (1891), and " Spring " (1895). Most of his other pictures have been small canvasses of exquisite finish, like the " Gold-fish " of 1900.

 

In 1870 he married an English woman and moved to London.

 

Gallery pictures: In The Tepidarium, 1881, Spring 3, The Favourite Poet, Unconscious Rivals, Steam Bath, At Aphrodite`s Cradle, The Honeymoon (Reign Of A..., Exhausted Maenides On The Steps Of Th..., An Apodyterium, The Frigidarium, Summer Offering, 1911, Her Eyes Are with Thoughts and They A...

A Difference of Opinion, A Listener, A Roman Family, This Is Our Corner 1873

 

From 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, a publication in the public domain.