Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema (1836-1912) Dreaming 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 Egyption 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 archaelogical detail, praised highly by Ruskin , although the famous critic had good and bad things to say about Alma Tadema. The ambitious | |
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