Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a Dutch-born painter who became a leading figure in British art in the late nineteenth century. Born in 1836 and trained in Antwerp, he moved to London in 1870 and built his reputation on carefully researched scenes of Roman, Greek and Egyptian life. His oil and watercolor pictures show marble halls, flowers, textiles and quiet domestic moments, often with a bright, even light. Museums in Britain and the United States hold his paintings. The six works in this catalogue range from a small watercolor with pen and ink to late oil panels, and they include London interiors and classical figure subjects.

Life and training

Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in Dronrijp, a village in the northern Netherlands. He later changed the spelling of his first name to the more English Lawrence and combined his middle name with his surname. As a young man he planned to study law, but after a period of illness he turned to art. In 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and later worked in the studio of Hendrik Leys. Leys encouraged detailed historical reconstruction, and Alma-Tadema began with Merovingian and Egyptian subjects. His first major success was The Education of the Children of Clovis, shown in 1861.

A turning point came in 1863 when he married Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin and traveled with her to Italy. Visits to Pompeii and Herculaneum gave him direct contact with Roman wall painting, architecture and domestic objects. He filled sketchbooks with columns, frescoes and household objects, and these notes later became source material for compositions. After that trip he focused increasingly on classical daily life rather than dramatic history painting. In 1869 his wife died, and in 1870 he moved to London. In 1871 he married Laura Epps, herself a painter. In 1873 he became a British citizen.

In London he built a successful career. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1876 and a full Royal Academician in 1879. His house, Townshend House in Regent's Park, became a showpiece of his own decorative taste, and he later lived at 44 Grove End Road. Alma-Tadema also designed furniture and interiors for his homes, and he entertained widely. His studio became a destination for collectors and fellow artists. In 1899 he was knighted, and in 1905 he received the Order of Merit. He continued to paint classical subjects and interiors into the early twentieth century. The catalogue includes a late work, Summer Offering, painted in 1911 when he was about 75 years old.

Alma-Tadema died on 25 June 1912 in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he had gone for treatment. His body was returned to England and buried in St Paul's Cathedral in London. He was 76 years old.

Style and technique

Alma-Tadema's technique depended on close observation of materials. He often worked in oil on panel or canvas, and he also used watercolor with pen and ink for smaller interior scenes. His brushwork is smooth and precise, especially on polished marble, metal and fabrics. In Not at Home, an oil on panel from 1879, the surface is even and controlled on a small panel, 40.49 x 31.29 cm.

His palette changed after 1863. Early works from his Antwerp years, influenced by Hendrik Leys, were darker and more solemn, with browns and deep reds. After visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum, he introduced brighter whites, blues, pinks and touches of gold. Marble became a recurring surface. Flowers appear often, from roses in The Roses of Heliogabalus to the blossoms in Summer Offering. Textiles, animal skins, bronze lamps and glass vessels add texture.

He also studied archaeological sources and used photographs of Roman sites and objects. Compositions often frame a figure near a window or doorway, with a second room or landscape visible beyond. In watercolors such as The Drawing Room at Townshend House and Drawing Room, Holland Park, the space is domestic rather than ancient, but the same love of patterned fabric, plants and polished surfaces appears.

Key paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

From an Absent One, 1871, is a watercolor with pen and ink on paper, 39.0 x 26.4 cm. The work belongs to a private collection.

Not at Home, 1879, is an oil on panel measuring 40.49 x 31.29 cm, now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. The picture shows a domestic interior, and the title suggests a social call refused.

The Drawing Room at Townshend House, 1885, is a watercolor in the Royal Academy of Arts in London. It records the drawing room of the artist's own house in Regent's Park.

Drawing Room, Holland Park, 1887, is another watercolor, now at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth. The title locates the room in the Holland Park area of London. It shows a domestic interior.

Summer Offering, 1911, is an oil on panel in the Museum of Art in Provo, Utah. Painted when Alma-Tadema was about 75 years old, it shows that he kept painting into his last years.

Among his famous large paintings, The Roses of Heliogabalus, 1888, shows the Roman emperor's guests almost buried under a shower of rose petals. It is one of his best known paintings.

Where to see the originals

Not at Home is in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Drawing Room, Holland Park is in the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth, United Kingdom. The Drawing Room at Townshend House belongs to the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Summer Offering is in the Museum of Art in Provo, Utah. From an Absent One and Sunshine are in private collections and are not regularly on public view. Other public museums with Lawrence Alma-Tadema paintings include Tate in London and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Private owners occasionally lend works for temporary exhibitions. Check museum websites for current access before visiting.