# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Alma-Tadema, Lawrence

​ALMA-TADEMA, Sir LAWRENCE (1886–1912), painter, the youngest son of Pieter Tadema, notary, of Leeuwarden, Holland, by his second wife, Hinke Brouwer, was born at Dronrijp, near ​Leeuwarden, 8 January 1836. Alma was the name of his godfather. His father died when the boy was four years old, and his mother, who was left with a large family, sent him to be educated in the gymnasium at Leeuwarden. Even in childhood he was devoted to drawing, and at fourteen painted his opus i, ‘Portrait of my Sister’, the first of a prodigious series, each numbered in orderly fashion in Roman numerals, ending only two months before his death with opus ccccviii, ‘Preparations’. His early attempts displayed such promise that in 1852 he went to Antwerp, and entered the academy. He soon attracted the attention of Louis Delaye, professor of archaeology, who confirmed in him a passion for that science, which profoundly influenced his work for the rest of his life; and in Delaye's studio, in 1858, he painted his first notable effort in this direction, ‘Clotilde at the Tomb of her Grandchildren’ (opus viii). Later he became the pupil of Hendrik Leys, working on that master's pictures as well as on his own, and studying, to use his own words, ‘the combinations that form a picture, and how pictures are made’. The first that he painted under these auspices was ‘The education of the Children of Clovis’ (opus xiv, 1861), of which Leys remarked ‘That marble is cheese’, a stricture which can never again have been passed on Alma-Tadema. In 1864 he sent to the Paris salon his first contribution, ‘Egyptians, Three Thousand Years Ago’ (opus xviii); this obtained a gold medal, and also brought him into touch with J. L. Gérôme, who revealed to him the medium which he himself employed, which Alma-Tadema always used thereafter. In 1863, on his marriage, he settled in Brussels, but the death of his wife in 1869 and the favourable reception of his pictures at the Royal Academy decided him to remove to London, where he finally settled in October 1870.
By this time Alma-Tadema had attained full command of his powers. The first picture which he painted in London, ‘From an Absent One’, was opus lxxxvi—the hand obeying the dictates of the mind with an easy assurance without which his astonishing productiveness would have been impossible. In 1871 he completed eleven pictures; in 1872 thirteen; in 1873 thirteen; in 1874 twenty-one, including the two large and elaborate works, ‘A Sculpture Gallery’ (opus cxxv) and ‘A Picture Gallery’ (opus cxxvi); in 1875 seventeen; in 1876 only nine, but among these was the great ‘Audience at Agrippa's’ (opus clxi). In few of the following years was his output less prolific. Impeccable drawing, and a sound and sane handling of his materials, whether water-colour or oil, characterized all Alma-Tadema's productions; and he seemed rather to play with, than to work at the artistic problems he set himself to solve. He excelled in the representation of textures, and lavished beautiful accessories of every kind upon his canvases. His wide and profound knowledge of archaeology ensured an accuracy which never became pedantic, whether he was dealing with ancient Egypt, Greece, or Rome, or with the Merovingian period which first attracted him. His greatest triumphs, however, were obtained in his reconstructions of imperial Rome, an achievement which was fitly recognized when, in 1906, on the recommendation of the Institute of British Architects, he was awarded the royal gold medal for the promotion of architecture. His skill was happily utilized by Sir Henry Irving, who persuaded him to design the scenery for Cymbeline in 1896 and for Coriolanus (as produced in 1901), and later by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree [q. v.] in productions of Julius Caesar and Hypatia.
Long before this his fellow artists had been prompt to acknowledge Alma-Tadema's high desert. In 1876, three years after he had received from Queen Victoria letters of denization, he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1879 a full academician. Officialdom endorsed the verdict of his brother artists when, in 1899, he was knighted, and in 1907 appointed one of the members of the order of merit. Nor were more tangible proofs of appreciation lacking. No public gallery of any importance in Europe, America, or Australia is without at least one example of his handiwork, nor can any private collection of modern art be deemed representative which has nothing of his to show, while excellent reproductions exist of many of his pictures.
Alma-Tadema's social success was rapid and complete. Gifted with a genial and attractive personality, he was a well-known figure in many and various circles, and few people of importance living in, or visiting, London, failed to find their way to the fine house which he built for himself in St. John's Wood, and, if musicians, to leave their autographs on his famous piano-lid. He died 25 June 1912 at Wiesbaden, where he was undergoing treatment for an internal complaint.
Alma-Tadema married twice: first, in 1863 Marie Pauline (died 1869), daughter of ​Eugène Gressin de Bois Girard, of Sancerre, France, by whom he had two daughters; secondly, in 1871 Laura Teresa (died 1909), daughter of George Napoleon Epps [q. v.].
[Art Annual, 1886 and 1910; Georg Ebers, Lorenz Alma-Tadema, 1885; Cosmo Monkhouse, British Contemporary Artists, 1899; private information. Portrait, Royal Academy Pictures, 1896.]
M. H. B.