|
Historical Artist - Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836 - 1912)
After training at the Antwerp Academy of Art and working with Baron Hendryk Leys, Lawrence
Alma-Tadema traveled to Italy where he was strongly influenced by the classical ruins. He
settled in England in 1870 and devoted himself to painting large-scale narrative, historical
paintings and was knighted in 1899. His later works were influenced by his trip to Egypt in
1902, and Alma-Tadema also developed an interest in ancient artifacts.
Universally admired during his lifetime for his superb draftsmanship and depictions of
Classical antiquity, he fell into disrepute after his death and only in the last thirty years
has his work been reevaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century English art.
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was arguably the most successful painter of the Victorian era. 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.
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 mesmerized by trying to visualize the
past, some of which was being recovered through archaeological research.
Contemporary Dutch Artists
Art Galleries in the Netherlands
|
