New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-07-21

sbau always think Of Sir Laurence
alma Tadema as the centre of group
-. friends. He had the genius Of
...ondshIp. In that beautiful museum
:. Grove End Road which served him
house the one thing in which,
.rtons he took more pride than in
other was the series OF panels
~oirted by his brother artists. For
.,-,a of them as artists he could have
"a M great respect. For all Of them
hrotbers he had a real affection.
Among his friends were his wife and
da,obters, and among the many at
items which drew other friends to
nis house they and he were the chief.
rJis domestic life had charm Of its
oa,, and also a distinction. Lady
.,roa-Tadema and Miss Anna We're
ortists whose work was, each in its
oun WAY. as individual as Tadema's;
Ginning by no reflected light, but by
their own merit and beauty. Miss
laurence is a writer of verse and
,rose. with a true sense Of literature
The two daughters are by his first wife
hut they and their stepmother were
Kindred In spirit. Lady Alma-Tadema
had her own studio. on the left as you
entered: a series of rooms entirely old
mitch. as If she, an Englishwoman,
had adopted the nationality of her hus-
band.
It was Tadema's theory that his
house should contain no room which
had not a specific and useful, practical
purpose. His studio was, therefore. a
studio and reception room in one. The
Tuesday evenings were held there;
when they did not happen TO be held
all over the house; which was thrown
men. even to tn bedrooms; all guests
privileged to ander where they
would; or. at any rate, all familiar
guests and friends who came often.
Everything testified TO the intimacy of
the relation between hosts and guests.
In the studio was an autograph book
like no other. A grand piano stood by
a Widowed recess with panes of Mex
ican onyx. Lift the cover and you
found II inscribed with the names of
great musicians who had played on it
or sung 10 il. Tadema loved music
next to his painting and his friends.
There was always music; sometimes by
world famous musicians, sometimes by
less known artists, but always by
artists. 1t was. / think, there that
first heard Redeker who early retired
into matrimOny, marrying Felix Sc
mon, now Sir Felix Semon, and him
self retired, but so long as he chose to
practice, the first of laryngologists and
general throat doctors.
The Princess Louise was 10 be met
there, a lover Of painting and Of other
arts: the most accomplished and,
among people whom she found sympa-
thetic, the most popular Of the late
Kings sisters. Neither rank nor fame
was in itself with Tadema title to
social intimacies. Celebrities came and
went
They who came often were his friends
or his wife's friends; which meant
much the same thing. On an easel
stood the latest picture. either com
pleted or in a state he judged fit to be
seen by those whose opinions he cared
for. As you look back over the years
these brilliant canvases pass before
you, as It were, in a procession. You
saw them afterward in their own cor
ner in the Royal Academy in the great
gallery on the south wall, near the en-
trance from No. 2. If they did not all
ways figure In the long and sometimes
dull catalogue of pictures Of the year.
they were always among the first to
attract the critics, whether professional
or private, who knew what painting
meant. But If you had once been al
lowed to see them in the masters stu
do you had seen them at home and
at their best. For then you saw them
alone and not amid the too often rather
vulgar glare Of the Academy.
To picture in the studio he used to
Introduce you If he saw you cared You
might care for the technique or for the
subject or for the dramatic value or
Just for the picture. as a picture or as
Tadema, but you must care for one
reason or another before he troubled
himself about you. When he saw that
you were studying it he would bring
you a lens that showed you the hearts
OF his roses or the veining Of his mar
bic or the sunlit blueness Of his South
ern sea. II you had seen IL half fin
ished and went again, expecting the
JOY Of the completed picture, you might
mo blank canvas or a picture no
longer the same. Never, / suppose,
was there an artist who strove 80 re-
morselessly for perfection. To his pa
uence, 10 his patient power Of work,
mere was no limit. And then all at
once he grew impatient. A new mood
seized him; a sudden vision of a higher
excellence TO which he had not at
'ained, or new point Of view; and in
moment he swept away the labor of
nays or perhaps weeks. He had no
eflIic so severe as himself.
he knew very well that they who
Jared not for a sustained and serious
I'm IN art complained that he was
sWays giving them roses and veined