Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema born Lourens Alma Tadema, (8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom, who himself as one of the most famous and highly paid Victorian painters. He preferred to paint historical subjects, usually from antiquity or the Merovingian period, but took his British contemporaries as models and transferred them almost unchanged into historical settings.
A coign of vantage, 1895
It was one of the components of the success of his paintings - few people could imagine what real ancient Egyptians or Greeks looked like, but their contemporaries in the exotic scenery of the ancient world seemed closer and clearer. However, Tadema was not a fantasist, always based on the historical basis and paid great attention to detail, so his paintings are even interesting from a scientific point of view as a manual of history.
The Finding of Moses, 1904
But in the memory of posterity, the opinion of the artist was ambiguous. Unlike recognized geniuses such as Modigliani or Vincent van Gogh, who lived in poverty, but created in his innovative and not recognized by his contemporaries style, Tadema earned good money, his paintings were in great demand, he was even awarded a knighthood, but soon after his death, the artist was forgotten, and his paintings were considered the embodiment of bad taste. However, not for long, now the paintings of Lawrence Tadema are in demand again, they are still beautiful and aesthetic, and are a fine example of Victorian painting.
The Roses of Heliogabalus, 1888
And the artist's life was by no means easy. As a child, he was on a hair's breadth from death and a well-founded fear of death haunted him for many years, forcing him to create and live quickly to be fully established as a person. And the era, about which he wrote his paintings, Tadema knew thoroughly, he was seriously interested in archaeology, participated in excavations, so there were no mistakes in his paintings.
Self-portrait. 1896.
However, from the criticism of detractors it did not protect, they said that he simply redraws people from the photo, inserting their images into the historical scenery, and only changes the clothes on them, and pretty girls in general often leaves without it, because such paintings are easier to find buyers. But such was the manner of writing of the artist, and he rarely used photos, because the lack of models in such a respected and serious painter was not observed.
The Tepidarium, 1881
Tadema was born in the family of a Dutch notary, was the sixth child in the family, and Alma was the name he received at birth. However, in Britain it became part of the family name, and as evil tongues said, the artist did it consciously - to be among the first in catalogs.
Summer offer
Lawrence lost his father very early - at the age of 4. He was brought up by his mother, who, seeing his ability to paint, took him to a local artist. Subsequently, he studied independently and on the work of Leonardo da Vinci, and at the same time seriously interested in history and archaeology, when he studied at grammar school. At the age of 15, he was put a terrible for those years sentence - consumption, because deciding that he had not very long to live, Lawrence did not want to waste a minute and was engaged with passion to have time to be an artist.
A Sculptors Model
He entered the Art Academy of Antwerp, and showed himself there a true perfectionist - all unsuccessful artworks simply destroyed and strived to achieve perfection in everything. At the age of 26 married, the daughter of a writer from France, and on their honeymoon, the young left for Rome and this trip was very important for the artist's work - since then the main theme of his artwork was antiquity.
The Colosseum
In England, where Tadema became an excellent artist, he arrived at the age of 32, already a widower - his first wife died of smallpox. That trip was very successful - it was in Britain that Tadema met Laura Epps, whom he married, joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, became an academician of the Academy of Fine Arts, received many awards and titles and, to top it all off, bought a house that became a real London landmark.
Favourite Poete, 1888
Here everything came together - the British love of classical salon portraits and realism, Lawrence's desire to meet these tastes, the primness of the English and the strict moralism of the Victorian era, and the artist's paintings, in which he painted nude beauties in the historical setting, quite well within the narrow limits of propriety.
Strigils and Sponges, 1879
Perhaps Tadema and began to depict people in his historical paintings so similar to his contemporaries, especially pretty girls and ladies - to see them inappropriate form was almost unreal, and it was considered the height of indecency, so all condemned, and here really existed British beauties under the “fig leaf” of antiquity and historical paintings. No wonder his artwork was in such demand, but was quickly forgotten when the Victorian era ended.
Buy handmade goods or modern art you can on artAlebrio - is an international marketplace for people who want to create, sell, buy and collect unique items and art - buy the best with us artAlebrio.com.
By confirming your order you unconditionally accept these General Conditions of Sale
