Lawrence Alma-Tadema

1836-1912

European Artist

Alma-Tadema was born in Dronrijp, Holland. His parents wanted him to become a lawyer but he always wanted to be an artist and, with great enthusiasm he tried to pursue both courses. This caused a significant decline of his health so his mother decided to allow him to do what he enjoyed most, to paint. This marked the beginning of a new period of his life. In 1851, he went to Antwerp to study in the Antwerp Academy. He left the Academy in 1856 and continued to study art and also took up the history of Germany, early France and Belgium. The period 1862-1870 is called his Continental period, he established himself as a significant contemporary European artist. In 1870, Alma-Tadema moved to England, where he was to spend the rest of his life. He became one of the most famous and highly paid artists of his time, acknowledged and rewarded by the fellow artists as well as by the governments of European countries. His paintings are marked by clarity of color, exactness, and smooth finish; he imagined a Rome of splendor, sunlight, and gentle sentiment. Alma-Tadema's paintings offer no moral lessons, and his critics called them lewd and spiritually vacuous, but the public loved them, enabling him to enjoy a sumptuous lifestyle in a house modeled on a Pompeian villa.