阿尔玛-塔德玛是19世纪英国的著名画家，他的作品多数都是表现中世纪以前的古埃及、古希腊、古罗马的题材。他画的大理石特别精彩。被誉为“大理石画家。由于现代艺术的崛起，他的作品在20世纪的大部分年代里被鄙视为堕落颓废的艺术而完全遭忽略。直到20世纪末开始他的作品才又受到重视。
Lourens阿尔玛Tadema出生的房子和雕像生于,荷兰
Lourens阿尔玛Tadema村里出生在1836年1月8日生于省的弗里斯兰省北部的荷兰.姓Tadema是一个古老的弗里斯兰语姓,意思是“塔德的儿子”,而Lourens和阿尔玛的名字来自他的教父。他的第六个孩子Pieter甩Tadema(1797 - 1840),这个村庄公证的第三个孩子Hinke短剑这(c . 1800—1800)。他父亲的三个儿子从先前的婚姻。他父母的第一个孩子英年早逝,第二个是Atje(c . 1834—1834),Lourens的妹妹,他伟大的感情。
Tadema家族在1838年搬到附近的城市吕伐登,Pieter作为公证的地位将更加有利可图。Lourens四岁时父亲去世,留下他和五个孩子的母亲:Lourens,三个男孩和他的妹妹,从他父亲的第一次婚姻。母亲的艺术倾向,决定吸取教训应该被纳入儿童教育。他收到了他的第一个艺术培训与当地主雇来教导他的老同。
它是那个男孩将成为一名律师,但在1851年,十五岁的他身体和精神崩溃。诊断为消费鉴于只有很短的时间内,他被允许花剩下的天休闲、素描和绘画。留给自己的设备,决定追求他恢复了健康的职业作为一个艺术家。
1852年,他进入了皇家艺术学院的安特卫普在比利时在那里他学习了早期荷兰和佛兰德艺术,在吗古斯塔夫Wappers。Alma-Tadema四年期间注册的学生设计的,他获得了许多受人尊敬的奖。
在1855年底,在离开学校之前,他成为画家和助理教授路易(Lodewijk)Jan de Taeye课程的历史和历史学院服装他极大的享受。虽然德Taeye不是一个杰出的画家,Alma-Tadema尊敬他,成为他的工作室助理,和他一起工作了三年。De Taeye介绍他的书描述影响他的欲望梅罗文加王朝的受试者在他职业生涯的早期。他鼓励描绘历史准确性在他的画中,特征的艺术家而闻名。
Alma-Tadema离开Taeye的工作室在1858年11月回到吕伐登在安特卫普定之前,他开始与画家男爵1月8月•利斯,他的工作室是一个最受人推崇的比利时。在他的指导下Alma-Tadema画他的第一个主要工作:教育孩子的克洛维斯(1861)。这幅画引起了轰动批评家和艺术家的时候那一年在安特卫普艺术大会上展出。是说他的名望和声誉奠定了基础。Alma-Tadema虽然草地认为完成相关的绘画比他的预期,他批评大理石的治疗,他比奶酪。
Alma-Tadema非常认真地看待这种批评,让他改善他的技术,成为世界上最重要的画家的大理石和花岗岩组合成的斑叶。尽管任何辱骂他的主人,克洛维的孩子的教育受到了评论家们的体面和艺术家一样,最终购买,随后给比利时国王利奥波德。
梅罗文加王朝的主题是画家最喜欢的主题到1860年代中期。也许在这个系列中,我们发现艺术家感动最深的感觉和强烈的浪漫精神。然而梅罗文加王朝的科目没有广泛的国际吸引力,于是他转向了古代的生活主题埃及这是更受欢迎。这些场景的法兰克和埃及生活Alma-Tadema花了巨大的能源和许多研究。1862年Alma-Tadema离开草地的工作室,开始自己的职业生涯,建立自己作为一个重要classical-subject欧洲艺术家。
安娜(前)和劳伦斯(Lawrence Alma-Tadema 1873)
1863年改变Alma-Tadema的个人和职业生活:无效的母亲去世后,1月3日,9月24日结婚,安特卫普市政厅的女儿,Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin尤金Gressin Dumoulin,一个法国记者住在附近布鲁塞尔.没有已知的会议和小波林,Alma-Tadema从来没有谈到她在她死后1869年。她的形象出现在许多油,虽然他只画她的肖像三次,最引人注目的出现在我的工作室(1867)。这对夫妇有三个孩子。他们最大的和唯一的儿子住几个月死于天花。他们的两个女儿,劳伦斯(1864 - 1940)安娜(1867 - 1943),都有艺术倾向:前者,后者在艺术。也不会结婚。
Alma-Tadema和妻子度蜜月弗洛伦斯,罗马,那不勒斯和庞贝古城。他第一次访问意大利,发展他的兴趣在描绘了古希腊和古罗马的生活,尤其是后者,因为他发现新的灵感在庞贝古城的废墟,这令他着迷,激发他的工作在未来几十年。
在1864年的夏天,Tadema满足欧内斯特Gambart,最具影响力的印刷出版商和艺术品经销商。Gambart Tadema的工作非常满意,当时埃及绘画棋手(1865)。经销商,承认年轻画家的不同寻常的礼物,给了他24的订单图片和安排三个Tadema在伦敦展示的作品。Tadema搬到了布鲁塞尔,在1865年,他被任命为一个骑士利奥波德的顺序.
1869年5月28日,经过多年的疾病,波林在Schaerbeek去世,在比利时,32岁的天花。她的死左Tadema郁闷和沮丧。他停止绘画将近4个月的时间。他的妹妹Artje,他们住在一起的家庭,帮助与两个女儿5岁和两个。Artje接手管家的角色,直到1873年和家人当她结婚了。
在夏季Tadema自己开始遭受医疗问题,医生在布鲁塞尔是令人沮丧的无法诊断。Gambart最终建议他去英国医疗意见。不久之后他的到来在伦敦在1869年12月,Alma-Tadema受邀的画家福特Madox布朗。在那里,他遇见了劳拉·特蕾莎Epps十七岁,爱上了她一见钟情。
的温水浴间(1881),油在面板中,24 x 33厘米。女士杆艺术画廊、阳光港、英国。躺在温水浴间,古代城市的中央大厅加入浴曲线美的美丽把她休息。
的爆发普法战争1870年7月,迫使Alma-Tadema离开大陆,搬到伦敦。他迷恋劳拉Epps发挥了伟大的作用在他搬迁到英国和Gambart认为此举将有利于艺术家的生涯。在陈述他的原因,Tadema简单地说:“我失去了我的第一个妻子,一位法国女士与我在1863年结婚,1869年。伦敦总是有一个伟大的偏爱,唯一的地方,到那时我的工作遇到了买家,我决定离开大陆去定居在英国,我发现了一个真正的家的地方。”
他的女儿和妹妹Atje很少,Alma-Tadema抵达伦敦在1870年9月的开始。画家没有浪费时间在联系劳拉,安排,他会给她绘画课。在其中的一个,他提出了结婚。这是他当时34和劳拉现在只有十八岁,她的父亲是起初反对这个主意。Epps博士终于同意,条件是他们应该等到他们知道彼此更好。1871年7月,他们结婚了。劳拉,她嫁给了名字,也赢得了很高的声誉作为一个艺术家,出现在无数的Alma-Tadema画布后,他们的婚姻(Amphissa的女性(1887年)是一个著名的例子)。这第二次婚姻持久的快乐,虽然没有孩子,和劳拉成为安娜和劳伦斯的继母。安娜成为画家,劳伦斯成为小说家。
他最初采用的名字劳伦斯·阿尔玛Tadema代替Lourens阿尔玛Tadema后来多采用英语劳伦斯在姓前面,和阿尔玛纳入他的姓,这样他开始出现在展览目录,在“一”而不是“T”。[3]实际上他并不用连字符号连接他的姓,但它是由他人,这已经成为了惯例。
Heliogabalus的玫瑰(1888),油画,132.1 x 213.7厘米,私人收藏。画在冬季,Tadema安排玫瑰每周从发出法国里维埃拉四个月,以确保每个的准确性花瓣.
在他抵达英格兰,度过自己的余生,Alma-Tadema的职业生涯是一个持续的成功。他成为最著名的和高收入的艺术家之一,承认和奖励。1871年,他大部分的结识的并成为朋友的拉菲尔前派的画家和部分由于他们的影响,艺术家照亮他的调色板,多样的色彩,减轻了他的绘画。
1872年Alma-Tadema组织他的画作的识别系统包括分配他早期作品多在他的签名和数字照片。我姐姐的画像,Artje,创作于1851年,是作品编号我,虽然他死前两个月他在竞技场准备完成,作品CCCCVIII。这样一个系统将难以使假货冒充原件。
1873年维多利亚女王在委员会通过专利特许证Alma-Tadema和他的妻子现在过去英国人居民(法律程序在理论上没有英国废除),和一些有限的所享有的特殊权利,否则只有给予和英国主题(现在被称为英国公民)。去年他和他的妻子做了一个旅程持续了5个半月的大陆上,他们通过布鲁塞尔,德国和意大利。在意大利,他们能在古代废墟;这一次,他买了几照片,大多的废墟,始于他巨大的手卷的档案材料足够的文档集合用于未来作品的完成。在1876年1月,他在罗马租了一间工作室。家庭4月回到伦敦,参观巴黎沙龙的路上。他经常在伦敦会见了fellow-artist埃米尔福克斯.[17][18]
这一时期最重要的他的照片是一个观众在亚(1876)。当一个崇拜者绘画提出支付一笔可观的一幅画和一个类似的主题,Alma-Tadema仅仅把皇帝给他离开后观众。
1879年6月19日,亲自Alma-Tadema是一个完整的院士,他最重要的奖项。三年后他的整个作品的回顾展在伦敦的格罗夫纳画廊组织,其中包括185的图片。
1883年,他回到罗马,最值得注意的是,庞贝古城,他上次访问以来发生了进一步的挖掘。他花了大量时间研究网站,每天都去那里。这些旅行给了他充足的题材来源他开始进一步日常罗马生活的知识。有时,然而,他很多对象集成到他的画,一些说他们就像博物馆目录。
是他最著名的作品之一Heliogabalus的玫瑰基于一集》(1888)——从放荡的生活罗马皇帝埃拉伽巴卢斯(Heliogabalus),这幅画描绘了心理变态的皇帝窒息他的客人在一个狂欢下一连串的玫瑰花瓣。每周花描绘了被伦敦艺术家的工作室里维埃拉的四个月期间1887 - 1888年的冬天。
Alma-Tadema中这一时期的作品:一个人间天堂(1891),无意识的竞争对手(1893)春天(1894),古罗马竞技场(1896)和卡拉卡拉浴场的(1899)。尽管Alma-Tadema的名声在古代他的画作,他还画了肖像,风景和水彩画,做了一些蚀刻自己(虽然更多的是他的画作的其他人)。
春天,(1894),油画,179.2 x 80.3厘米,j·保罗盖蒂博物馆,洛杉矶。它描述了Cerealia节在罗马街头。Tadema最著名的和受欢迎的作品之一,他花了四年时间来完成。许多参与者和观众的模型Tadema的朋友和家庭成员[19]
安静的魅力和博学的画作,Alma-Tadema自己保存年轻的恶作剧。他孩子般的在他的恶作剧和突然爆发的坏脾气,这可能是突然消失成一个迷人微笑.
在他的个人生活,Alma-Tadema是一个性格外向的人,有一个非常温暖的人格。他大部分的孩子的特点,加上完美的专业的令人钦佩的品质。一个完美主义者,他仍然在各方面勤奋,如果有点较真和迂腐的工人。他是一个优秀的商人,十九世纪最富有的艺术家之一。Alma-Tadema钱很重要,因为他是公司与他的工作的质量。
作为一个男人,劳伦斯Alma-Tadema是一个健壮的、有趣的爱而胖胖的绅士。没有一丝微妙的艺术家对他的;他是一个开朗热爱葡萄酒,妇女和政党。
Alma-Tadema的产出下降随着时间的推移,部分原因在于健康,还因为他的痴迷装饰他的新家,在1883年他搬。然而,他继续表现出在整个1880年代,进入下一个十年中,获得充足的赞誉,包括的荣誉勋章1889年的巴黎博览会Universelle荣誉成员选举,在1890年牛津大学戏剧协会,伟大的金牌1897年在布鲁塞尔举行的国际博览会。1899年,他被受封为爵士在英格兰,只有第八艺术家从大陆接受荣誉。他不仅协助英国部分的组织1900年在巴黎博览会Universelle,他也表现出了两个作品,这为他赢得了大奖赛文凭。他还协助1904年圣路易斯世界博览会他表示,收到。
在这段时间里,Alma-Tadema与剧院设计和生产非常活跃,许多服装设计。他也传播艺术的界限,开始设计家具,经常模仿庞培城的或埃及图案后,插图,纺织品、和框架。多样化的利益突出他的才能。这些利用被使用在他的画作,他经常把他的一些设计家具组成,并且必须使用他自己的服装设计的许多女性受试者。在生命的最后时期的创造力Alma-Tadema继续生产油画,重复的成功公式女性银等大理石露台俯瞰大海的最爱(1903)。去世在1906年和六年后,Alma-Tadema画少,然产生了雄心勃勃的绘画摩西的发现(1904)。
1909年8月15日Alma-Tadema的妻子劳拉去世,享年57。悲痛欲绝的鳏夫比他的二任妻子多活了不到三年。他的最后一个主要成分是准备在竞技场(1912)。[24]在1912年的夏天,阿尔玛Tadema伴随着他的女儿安娜Kaiserhof温泉,威斯巴登德国在哪里接受治疗溃疡的胃。[25]他死于1912年6月28日,享年七十六岁。他被葬在一个地下室圣保罗大教堂在伦敦。[25]
银色的最爱,1903年,石油在木头,69.1 x 42.2厘米,曼彻斯特艺术画廊。一个例子Alma-Tadema对比的闪闪发光的白色大理石的背景下耀眼的蓝色的地中海。[26]艺术家了中间立场,前景与遥远的地平线,突然将创建一个戏剧性的效果。[27]
Alma-Tadema作品引人注目的鲜花,纹理和努力反映物质,如金属、陶器、特别是大理石,大理石画——事实上,他的写实的手法描绘使他被称为“marbellous画家”。他的作品显示了大部分的好旧荷兰大师的执行和鲜艳的颜色。的人情味,他给所有场景从古代生活带给他们的范围内现代感觉,和魅力我们温柔的情绪,活泼。
在他职业生涯的早期,Alma-Tadema特别关心建筑精度,通常还包括对象,他会看到博物馆——比如大英博物馆在伦敦,在他的作品中。他也读很多书和拍了许多照片。他积累了大量的照片从古代遗址在意大利,他使用的最精确的精度在他的作品的细节。
Alma-Tadema是一个完美主义者。他努力工作使他的大部分作品,经常反复返工的部分画在他发现之前他们满意自己的高标准。一个幽默故事与他的画作之一是拒绝,而不是把它,他给一位女仆画布用它作为她的表盖。他敏感的每一个细节和建筑他的画作,他描绘的设置。的对象在他的画中,他将描绘在他面前的是什么,用鲜花从非洲进口来自整个非洲大陆,甚至急于完成画作之前的花都死了。正是这种真实性的承诺,为他赢得了认可,也使他的许多对手几乎拿起武器反对他的百科全书式的作品。
Alma-Tadema的工作已经与欧洲象征主义画家。作为一个艺术家的国际声誉,他可以认为是一个影响欧洲数据等古斯塔夫•克里姆特和弗尔南多Khnopff.画家把传统图案融入他们的作品和使用Alma-Tadema的非传统的成分等设备突然断电的边缘画布。Alma-Tadema一样,他们也使用编码的绘画意象来传达意义。
Alma-Tadema最经济成功画家的维多利亚时代,尽管没有匹配埃德温·亨利·兰西尔。六十多年了他给他的听众正是他们想要的:独特,精致的古典绘画美丽的人设置。他令人难以置信的详细再现了古罗马,构成对男性和女性的白色大理石在刺眼的阳光下为听众提供了的世界的他们可能至少有一天为自己构造的态度如果不详细。与其他画家,打印的生殖权利往往是价值超过画布,和一幅画附带权利仍可能被卖给Gambart£10000;1874年没有权利在1903年再次出售,当Alma-Tadema的价格确实高,£2625。典型£2000和£3000之间的价格是在1880年代,但至少三个作品售价£5250,£6060在1900年代。价格好,直到举行的一般崩溃维多利亚时代的价格在1920年代早期,当他们降至数百人,他们直到1960年代,到1960年再次达成了£4600(当然通货膨胀的巨大影响必须被铭记为所有这些数据)。
Alma-Tadema生命的最后几年看到的崛起Post-Impressionism,野兽派,立体主义和未来主义,他由衷地反对。作为他的学生约翰·科利尔写道,“这是不可能调和Alma-Tadema与的艺术马蒂斯,高更和毕加索.'
他的艺术遗产几乎消失了。公众的态度、特别是艺术家越来越怀疑人类成就的可能性,他的画作被越来越多的谴责。他被宣布为“19世纪最糟糕的画家”约翰拉斯金,一位评论家甚至说,他的画是“值得足以点缀波旁酒盒。“经过这段时间的积极嘲笑,他委托相对默默无闻多年。只有1960年代以来Alma-Tadema的工作被估计在19世纪,它的重要性,更具体地说,在英国艺术的演变。
的画像Ignacy简•莱夫斯基,1891年,布面油画,45.7×58.4厘米,国家博物馆,华沙。他在肖像使用心理现实主义揭示了画中人的个性。
他现在被视为一个十九世纪的主要classical-subject画家的作品展现一个时代的护理和正确如痴如醉,试图想象过去,通过考古研究其中一些被恢复。
Alma-Tadema细致的考古研究,包括研究罗马式建筑(这是如此彻底,每座建筑物出现在他的油画已经建成使用罗马工具和方法)导致他的画作被用作原料的好莱坞导演的电影如《古代世界d·w·格里菲斯的不宽容(1916),宾虚(1926),克利奥帕特拉(1934年),最明显的是,塞西尔·b·德米尔史诗的改造《十诫》(1956)。的确,杰西•拉斯。,这部《十诫》,描述了董事通常会分散打印Alma-Tadema画来表示他的设计师看他想实现。奥斯卡获奖的设计师罗马史诗《角斗士》使用的画作Alma-Tadema作为中心的灵感来源。Alma-Tadema的绘画的灵感也是内部的设计在2005年的电影《以下简称Paravel城堡纳尼亚传奇3:《狮子、女巫、魔衣橱》.
1962年,纽约艺术品经销商罗伯特·艾萨克森安装的第一个显示Alma-Tadema 50年来的工作;到1960年代末,维多利亚时代的绘画兴趣的复苏上涨动力,和一些有很多人参加的展览举行。艾伦的资金,美国的创造者和主机版本的电视节目袖珍照相机的收集器Alma-Tadema绘画时20世纪艺术家的名声在最低点;他买了35的作品,在一个相对几年Alma-Tadema约百分之十的输出。经费被抢劫后他的会计(他后来自杀了),他被迫出售他在伦敦苏富比1973年11月。从这个销售,Alma-Tadema的兴趣被重新唤醒。
1960年,纽曼画廊首先尝试出售,然后赠送(不成功)他最著名的作品之一,摩西的发现(1904年)。最初购买者支付了£5250它完成,和随后的销售额为£861 1935年,£265 1942年,它是“买”£252 1960年(未能满足其储备),但当同样的照片是1995年5月在纽约佳士得拍卖,它售价£175万。2010年11月4日以35922500美元的价格卖给一个不为人知的投标人索斯比拍卖行纽约,一个新纪录的艺术家和维多利亚时代的绘画。2011年5月5日他的“安东尼与克里奥佩特拉的会议:公元前41”是在同一拍卖行以2920万美元的价格出售。
Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronrijp in the province of Friesland in the north of theNetherlands.[2] The surname Tadema is an old Frisian patronymic, meaning 'son of Tade', while the names Lourens and Alma came from his godfather.[3] He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema (1797–1840), the village notary, and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer (c. 1800–1863). His father had three sons from a previous marriage. His parents' first child died young, and the second was Atje (c.1834–1876), Lourens' sister, for whom he had great affection.
The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the nearby city of Leeuwarden, where Pieter's position as a notary would be more lucrative. His father died when Lourens was four, leaving his mother with five children: Lourens, his sister, and three boys from his father's first marriage. His mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education. He received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers.
It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer; but in 1851 at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown. Diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. Left to his own devices he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist.
In 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium where he studied early Dutch and Flemish art, under Gustaf Wappers. During Alma-Tadema's four years as a registered student at the Academy, he won several respectable awards.
Before leaving school, towards the end of 1855, he became assistant to the painter and professor Louis (Lodewijk) Jan de Taeye, whose courses in history and historical costume he had greatly enjoyed at the Academy. Although de Taeye was not an outstanding painter, Alma-Tadema respected him and became his studio assistant, working with him for three years. De Taeye introduced him to books that influenced his desire to portray Merovingian subjects early in his career. He was encouraged to depict historical accuracy in his paintings, a trait for which the artist became known.
Alma-Tadema left Taeye's studio in November 1858 returning to Leeuwarden before settling in Antwerp, where he began working with the painter Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys,[5] whose studio was one of the most highly regarded in Belgium. Under his guidance Alma-Tadema painted his first major work: The Education of the children of Clovis (1861). This painting created a sensation among critics and artists when it was exhibited that year at the Artistic Congress in Antwerp. It is said to have laid the foundation of his fame and reputation.[6]Alma-Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected, he was critical of the treatment of marble, which he compared to cheese.[6]
Alma-Tadema took this criticism very seriously, and it led him to improve his technique and to become the world's foremost painter of marble and variegated granite. Despite any reproaches from his master, The Education of the Children of Clovis was honorably received by critics and artists alike and was eventually purchased and subsequently given to King Leopold of Belgium.
Merovingian themes were the painter's favourite subject up to the mid-1860s. It is perhaps in this series that we find the artist moved by the deepest feeling and the strongest spirit of romance. However Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal, so he switched to themes of life in ancient Egypt that were more popular. On these scenes of Frankish and Egyptian life Alma-Tadema spent great energy and much research. In 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leys's studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject European artist.
1863 was to alter the course of Alma-Tadema's personal and professional life: on 3 January his invalid mother died, and on 24 September he was married, in Antwerp City Hall, to Marie-Pauline Gressin Dumoulin, the daughter of Eugène Gressin Dumoulin, a French journalist living near Brussels.[8] Nothing is known of their meeting and little of Pauline herself, as Alma-Tadema never spoke about her after her death in 1869. Her image appears in a number of oils, though he painted her portrait only three times, the most notable appearing in My studio (1867).[9] The couple had three children. Their eldest and only son lived only a few months dying of smallpox. Their two daughters, Laurence (1864–1940) and Anna (1867–1943), both had artistic leanings: the former in literature, the latter in art. Neither would marry.
Alma-Tadema and his wife spent their honeymoon in Florence, Rome, Naples and Pompeii. This, his first visit to Italy, developed his interest in depicting the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter since he found new inspiration in the ruins of Pompeii, which fascinated him and would inspire much of his work in the coming decades.
During the summer of 1864, Tadema met Ernest Gambart, the most influential print publisher and art dealer of the period. Gambart was highly impressed with the work of Tadema, who was then painting Egyptian chess players (1865). The dealer, recognising at once the unusual gifts of the young painter, gave him an order for twenty-four pictures and arranged for three of Tadema's paintings to be shown in London.[10] In 1865, Tadema relocated to Brussels where he was named a knight of the Order of Leopold.
On 28 May 1869, after years of ill health, Pauline died at Schaerbeek, in Belgium, at the age of thirty-two, of smallpox.[11] Her death left Tadema disconsolate and depressed. He ceased painting for nearly four months. His sister Artje, who lived with the family, helped with the two daughters then aged five and two. Artje took over the role of housekeeper and remained with the family until 1873 when she married.[11]
During the summer Tadema himself began to suffer from a medical problem which doctors in Brussels were frustratingly unable to diagnose. Gambart eventually advised him to go to England for another medical opinion. Soon after his arrival in London in December 1869, Alma-Tadema was invited to the home of the painter Ford Madox Brown. There he metLaura Theresa Epps, who was seventeen years old, and fell in love with her at first sight.
The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870 compelled Alma-Tadema to leave the continent and move to London. His infatuation with Laura Epps played a great part in his relocation to England and Gambart felt that the move would be advantageous to the artist's career. In stating his reasons for the move, Tadema simply said "I lost my first wife, a French lady with whom I married in 1863, in 1869. Having always had a great predilection for London, the only place where, up till then my work had met with buyers, I decided to leave the continent and go to settle in England, where I have found a true home."
With his small daughters and sister Atje, Alma-Tadema arrived in London at the beginning of September 1870. The painter wasted no time in contacting Laura, and it was arranged that he would give her painting lessons. During one of these, he proposed marriage. As he was then thirty-four and Laura was now only eighteen, her father was initially opposed to the idea. Dr Epps finally agreed on the condition that they should wait until they knew each other better. They married in July 1871. Laura, under her married name, also won a high reputation as an artist, and appears in numerous of Alma-Tadema's canvases after their marriage (The Women of Amphissa (1887) being a notable example). This second marriage was enduring and happy, though childless, and Laura became stepmother to Anna and Laurence. Anna became a painter and Laurence became a novelist.[13]
He would initially adopt the name Laurence Alma Tadema instead of Lourens Alma Tadema and later adopt the more English Lawrence for his forename, and incorporate Alma into his surname so that he appeared at the beginning of exhibition catalogues, under "A" rather than under "T".[3] He did not actually hyphenate his last name, but it was done by others and this has since become the convention.
After his arrival in England, where he was to spend the rest of his life, Alma-Tadema's career was one of continued success. He became one of the most famous and highly paid artists of his time, acknowledged and rewarded. By 1871 he had met and befriended most of the major Pre-Raphaelite painters and it was in part due to their influence that the artist brightened his palette, varied his hues, and lightened his brushwork.
In 1872 Alma-Tadema organised his paintings into an identification system by including an opus number under his signature and assigning his earlier pictures numbers as well. Portrait of my sister, Artje, painted in 1851, is numbered opus I, while two months before his death he completed Preparations in the Coliseum, opus CCCCVIII. Such a system would make it difficult for fakes to be passed off as originals.
In 1873 Queen Victoria in Council by letters patent made Alma-Tadema and his wife what are now the last British Denizens (the legal process has theoretically not yet been abolished in the United Kingdom), with some limited special rights otherwise only accorded to and enjoyed by British subjects (what would now be called British citizens). The previous year he and his wife made a journey on the Continent that lasted five and a half months and took them through Brussels, Germany, and Italy. In Italy they were able to take in the ancient ruins again; this time he purchased several photographs, mostly of the ruins, which began his immense collection of folios with archival material sufficient for the documentation used in the completion of future paintings. In January 1876, he rented a studio in Rome. The family returned to London in April, visiting the Parisian Salon on their way back. In London he regularly met with fellow-artist Emil Fuchs.
Among the most important of his pictures during this period was An Audience at Agrippa's (1876). When an admirer of the painting offered to pay a substantial sum for a painting with a similar theme, Alma-Tadema simply turned the emperor around to show him leaving in After the Audience.
On 19 June 1879, Alma-Tadema was made a full Academician, his most personally important award. Three years later a major retrospective of his entire oeuvre was organised at the Grosvenor Gallery in London, including 185 of his pictures.
In 1883 he returned to Rome and, most notably, Pompeii, where further excavations had taken place since his last visit. He spent a significant amount of time studying the site, going there daily. These excursions gave him an ample source of subject matter as he began to further his knowledge of daily Roman life. At times, however, he integrated so many objects into his paintings that some said they resembled museum catalogues.
One of his most famous paintings is The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888) – based on an episode from the life of the debauched Roman EmperorElagabalus (Heliogabalus), the painting depicts the psychopathic Emperor suffocating his guests at an orgy under a cascade of rose petals. The blossoms depicted were sent weekly to the artist's London studio from the Riviera for four months during the winter of 1887–1888.
Among Alma-Tadema's works of this period are: An Earthly Paradise (1891), Unconscious Rivals (1893) Spring (1894), The Coliseum (1896) andThe Baths of Caracalla (1899). Although Alma-Tadema's fame rests on his paintings set in Antiquity, he also painted portraits, landscapes and watercolours, and made some etchings himself (although many more were made of his paintings by others).
For all the quiet charm and erudition of his paintings, Alma-Tadema himself preserved a youthful sense of mischief. He was childlike in his practical jokes and in his sudden bursts of bad temper, which could as suddenly subside into an engaging smile.
In his personal life, Alma-Tadema was an extrovert and had a remarkably warm personality.He had most of the characteristics of a child, coupled with the admirable traits of a consummate professional. A perfectionist, he remained in all respects a diligent, if somewhat obsessive and pedantic worker. He was an excellent businessman, and one of the wealthiest artists of the nineteenth century. Alma-Tadema was as firm in money matters as he was with the quality of his work.
As a man, Lawrence Alma-Tadema was a robust, fun loving and rather portly gentleman. There was not a hint of the delicate artist about him; he was a cheerful lover of wine, women and parties.
Alma-Tadema's output decreased with time, partly on account of health, but also because of his obsession with decorating his new home, to which he moved in 1883. Nevertheless, he continued to exhibit throughout the 1880s and into the next decade, receiving a plentiful amount of accolades along the way, including the medal of Honour at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889, election to an honorary member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society in 1890, the Great Gold Medal at the International Exposition in Brussels of 1897. In 1899 he was Knighted in England, only the eighth artist from the Continent to receive the honour. Not only did he assist with the organisation of the British section at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, he also exhibited two works that earned him the Grand Prix Diploma. He also assisted with the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904where he was well represented and received.
During this time, Alma-Tadema was very active with theatre design and production, designing many costumes. He also spread his artistic boundaries and began to design furniture, often modelled after Pompeian or Egyptian motifs, illustrations, textiles, and frame making. His diverse interests highlight his talents. Each of these exploits were used in his paintings, as he often incorporated some of his designed furniture into the composition, and must have used many of his own designs for the clothing of his female subjects. Through his last period of creativity Alma-Tadema continued to produce paintings, which repeat the successful formula of women in marble terraces overlooking the sea such as in Silver Favourites (1903). Between 1906 and his death six years later, Alma-Tadema painted less but still produced ambitious paintings like The Finding of Moses (1904).
On 15 August 1909 Alma-Tadema's wife, Laura, died at the age of fifty-seven. The grief-stricken widower outlived his second wife by less than three years. His last major composition was Preparation in the Coliseum (1912). In the summer of 1912, Alma Tadema was accompanied by his daughter Anna to Kaiserhof Spa, Wiesbaden, Germany where he was to undergo treatment for ulceration of the stomach.[25] He died there on 28 June 1912 at the age of seventy-six. He was buried in a crypt in St Paul's Cathedral in London.
Alma-Tadema's works are remarkable for the way in which flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances, like metals, pottery, and especially marble, are painted – indeed, his realistic depiction of marble led him to be called the 'marbellous painter'. His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters. By the human interest with which he imbues all his scenes from ancient life he brings them within the scope of modern feeling, and charms us with gentle sentiment and playfulness.
From early in his career, Alma-Tadema was particularly concerned with architectural accuracy, often including objects that he would see at museums – such as the British Museum in London – in his works. He also read many books and took many images from them. He amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy, which he used for the most precise accuracy in the details of his compositions.
Alma-Tadema was a perfectionist. He worked assiduously to make the most of his paintings, often repeatedly reworking parts of paintings before he found them satisfactory to his own high standards. One humorous story relates that one of his paintings was rejected and instead of keeping it, he gave the canvas to a maid who used it as her table cover. He was sensitive to every detail and architectural line of his paintings, as well as the settings he was depicting. For many of the objects in his paintings, he would depict what was in front of him, using fresh flowers imported from across the continent and even from Africa, rushing to finish the paintings before the flowers died. It was this commitment to veracity that earned him recognition but also caused many of his adversaries to take up arms against his almost encyclopaedic works.
Alma-Tadema's work has been linked with that of European Symbolist painters. As an artist of international reputation, he can be cited as an influence on European figures such as Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff.[28] Both painters incorporate classical motifs into their works and use Alma-Tadema's unconventional compositional devices such as abrupt cut-off at the edge of the canvas. They, like Alma-Tadema, also employ coded imagery to convey meaning to their paintings.
Alma-Tadema was among the most financially successful painters of the Victorian era, though never matching Edwin Henry Landseer. For over sixty years he gave his audience exactly what they wanted: distinctive, elaborate paintings of beautiful people in classical settings. His incredibly detailed reconstructions of ancient Rome, with languid men and women posed against white marble in dazzling sunlight provided his audience with a glimpse of a world of the kind they might one day construct for themselves at least in attitude if not in detail. As with other painters, the reproduction rights for prints were often worth more than the canvas, and a painting with its rights still attached may have been sold to Gambart for £10,000 in 1874; without rights it was sold again in 1903, when Alma-Tadema's prices were actually higher, for £2,625. Typical prices were between £2,000 and £3,000 in the 1880s, but at least three works sold for between £5,250 and £6,060 in the 1900s. Prices held well until the general collapse of Victorian prices in the early 1920s, when they fell to the hundreds, where they remained until the 1960s; by 1969 £4,600 had been reached again (the huge effect of inflation must of course be remembered for all these figures).
The last years of Alma-Tadema's life saw the rise of Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and Futurism, of which he heartily disapproved. As his pupil John Collier wrote, 'it is impossible to reconcile the art of Alma-Tadema with that of Matisse, Gauguin and Picasso.'
His artistic legacy almost vanished. As attitudes of the public in general and the artists in particular became more sceptical of the possibilities of human achievement, his paintings were increasingly denounced. He was declared "the worst painter of the 19th century" byJohn Ruskin, and one critic even remarked that his paintings were "about worthy enough to adorn bourbon boxes." After this brief period of being actively derided, he was consigned to relative obscurity for many years. Only since the 1960s has Alma-Tadema's work been re-evaluated for its importance within the nineteenth century, and more specifically, within the evolution of English art.
He is now regarded as one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century whose works demonstrate the care and exactitude of an era mesmerised by trying to visualise the past, some of which was being recovered through archaeological research.
Alma-Tadema's meticulous archaeological research, including research into Roman architecture (which was so thorough that every building featured in his canvases could have been built using Roman tools and methods) led to his paintings being used as source material by Hollywood directors in their vision of the ancient world for films such as D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), Ben Hur (1926), Cleopatra(1934), and most notably of all, Cecil B. DeMille's epic remake of The Ten Commandments (1956).Indeed, Jesse Lasky Jr., the co-writer on The Ten Commandments, described how the director would customarily spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to indicate to his set designers the look he wanted to achieve. The designers of the Oscar-winning Roman epic Gladiator used the paintings of Alma-Tadema as a central source of inspiration.[33] Alma-Tadema's paintings were also the inspiration for the design of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
In 1962, New York art dealer Robert Isaacson mounted the first show of Alma-Tadema's work in fifty years; by the late 1960s, the revival of interest in Victorian painting gained impetus, and a number of well-attended exhibitions were held.Allen Funt, the creator and host of the American version of the television show Candid Camera, was a collector of Alma-Tadema paintings at a time when the artist's reputation in the 20th century was at its nadir;[38] in a relatively few years he bought 35 works, about ten percent of Alma-Tadema's output. After Funt was robbed by his accountant (who subsequently committed suicide), he was forced to sell his collection at Sotheby's in London in November 1973.[39] From this sale, the interest in Alma-Tadema was re-awakened.
In 1960, the Newman Gallery firstly tried to sell, then give away (without success) one of his most celebrated works, The Finding of Moses(1904). The initial purchaser had paid £5,250 for it on its completion, and subsequent sales were for £861 in 1935, £265 in 1942, and it was "bought in" at £252 in 1960 (having failed to meet its reserve), but when the same picture was auctioned at Christies in New York in May 1995, it sold for £1.75 million. On 4 November 2010 it was sold for $35,922,500 to an undisclosed bidder at Sotheby's New York, a new record for the artist and a Victorian painting. On 5 May 2011 his "The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra: 41 BC" was sold at the same auction house for $29.2 million.
A blue plaque unveiled in 1975 commemorates Alma-Tadema at 44 Grove End Road, St John's Wood.
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