Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Tadema, Sir Lawrence Alma- (1836–1912), English painter of Dutch origin

Omeka record contributed by Ekaterina Koposova

December 24, 2016

January 8, 1836

Dronrijp, Friesland (Netherlands)

June 25, 1912

Painter
Costume and Scenic Designer
Decorator

Lawrence Alma Tadema was born on January 8, 1836, in the small but wealthy village of Dronrijp, Friesland (Netherlands). Tadema attended the gymnasium of Leeuwarden, where he was first exposed to the literature and history of ancient Greece and Rome, on which he would draw for the duration of his career. At sixteen, Tadema began his training at the Academy of Art in Antwerp, where he would become the pupil of Van Leys, whose style had considerable influence on the young artist. In 1863, Tadema, newly married, visited Italy for the first time. Tadema’s observations of the first systematic excavations at Pompeii inspired him to create paintings that depicted genre scenes set in Antiquity. Followed several years of productive work. In 1867, Tadema, weary perhaps of the Classical quotidian, turned to Classical historical subjects. (He did not, however, abandon genre scenes.) First among these was The Praetorians Summoning Claudius to the Imperial Throne After the Murder of Caligula (1867). This marked a trend that, starting in 1865, would continue to dominate his art: the depiction of Ancient Rome.
Possibly acting on the advice of the art dealer Ernest Gambart, in 1870, Tadema moved to England, where his works were more appreciated and sold for considerably greater prices. The immediate cause for Tadema’s departure was probably the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. In London, he settled in Townshend House, Regent's Park, where he soon resumed his artistic production. During the 1870s, Tadema made several trips to Italy. In 1874 he had gone for a visit to Rome, where he painted several works that won him a gold medal in Berlin followed by the award of the Prussian Order of Merit in 1881. In 1876, Tadema became an associate of the Royal Academy and an academician three years later.
In 1886, Tadema moved to his second residence in London in Grove End Road, St John's Wood. This house the artist altered considerably to his liking. Among the most important aspects of the house was the studio, which was designed to simulate Mediterranean light even in the winter months. As he started working in this studio, Tadema’s paintings changed: interiors of warm colors gave way to outside scenes dominated by marble architecture and set against the backdrop of Mediterranean seascapes. In the 1880s, as in the 1870s, his art production was mostly devoted to Roman subjects. This sustained interest in Roman Antiquity was supported by a large library and an extensive reference collection.
Tadema’s last decades were less productive though he did participate and win awards in Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889 and 1900. The decoration of his new house and his interest in theatre, not to mention his declining health, reduced the time he dedicated to painting. In 1890, he became a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society. His knighthood (1899) and the Order of Merit he received in 1905 testify to his high status in Victorian society. Tadema died on June 25, 1912, in Wiesbaden, Germany, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London, on July 5. The same year a memorial exhibition was held at the Royal Academy in his honor.

Ebers, Georg. Lawrence Alma Tadema: His Life and Works. London: W. S. Gottsberger, 1886.

J. Barrow, Rosemary. Lawrence Alma-Tadema. New York: Phaidon Press, 2003.

Barrow, Rosemary. “Tadema, Sir Lawrence Alma- (1836–1912).” Rosemary Barrow In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by David Cannadine, May 2011.