And he also numbered his paintings - what a pettiness! And what a help to current researchers.įamous paintings by Alma-Tadema: “ The Roses of Heliogabalus”, “ The Baths of Caracalla”, “ The Finding of Moses”, “ Anthony and Cleopatra”, “ Advantageous Position”, “ Self-portrait”, “ The Long-awaited Steps”, “ A Harvest festival”, “ The Honeymoon”, “ Summer Offering”, “ Courtship the Proposal”, “ The Voice of Spring”, “ Egyptian Juggler”. For instance, people said that Alma-Tadema was drawing his subjects from photographs, and so that the viewer would not have guessed anything, he was adding something “from himself”. There were a lot of rumors spreading about him and talks of not so kind nature, to say the least.

He was fond of history, architecture and archeology (he participated in excavations), and, unlike many contemporaries, he was never mistaken in the fact that he depicted.

To justify Alma-Tadema, one can say that, firstly, he nearly died in his childhood and lived for quite a while under the shadow of the expectation of an imminent death and secondly, his popularity and “aristocratic demeanor” were there because of the fact that Alma-Tadema, like no one else, knew the features and details of the eras he portrayed. And secondly, from some point of view, as a compensation for lifelong well-being, he was forgotten quite quickly right after his death - almost immediately after the memorial posthumous exhibition. And in 1904, the artist received the Order of the British Empire.Īlma-Tadema was often opposed in a rather aggressive way to “poor and starving” artists who had become a part of eternity, because, firstly, he wasn’t starving. In 1899, he was awarded the knighthood - an exceptional case for the foreign artists: only Rubens and van Dyck were given such honor before. There were also enough titles and awards in his life. Perhaps, that was what caused the popularity of Alma-Tadema among both critics and the public (in addition to, of course, the artist's most accurate performance of the antique details). Out of 408 of his canvases, the artist depicted antiquity at least in 300 of them, but the subjects of his paintings were the artist's contemporaries - Victorians, set in antique scenery.

When he was a student, he drew subjects for his paintings in the stories of the Merovingian period - the first dynasty of the Frankish kings in the history of France, as well as in the stories of ancient Egypt. He was considered to be one of the most popular and highly paid masters of the Victorian era.įeatures of the artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema: Alma-Tadema had always considered himself to be an artist of the historical genre. Lawrence Alma-Tadema ( January 8, 1836, Dronryp, the Netherlands - June 25, 1912, Wiesbaden, Germany) was a British artist of Dutch origin who created paintings on historical subjects.

Alma tadema paintings