Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Easily the most successful painter of the Victorian Age, Lawrence Alma-Tadema was dubbed “The Marbelous Painter” in recognition of his impressive ability to capture accurate representations of granite and marble composition on canvas. Born in the small village of Dronryp, the Netherlands, Alma-Tadema would begin drawing lessons very early on, thanks to his mother's incorporation of the arts into the children's home studies, after the death of his father at the age of 4.

In 1852, the Dutch born artist would begin formal art training at the Antwerp Academy under both Baron Leys and Louis Jan de Taeye. The onset of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 would compel Alma-Tadema to move to London, where he would live out the rest of his life with continued success, both socially and financially, as a direct result of his artistic talents. It was here that Lawrence Alta-Tadema met and befriended most of the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, whose influence is credited with a shift in Alma-Tadema style, which now incorporated brighter palettes and lighter brushwork.

As the most famous and highest paid artist of his time, Lawrence Alma-Tadema enjoyed a relatively lavish lifestyle, with his own signature carefree flair. That's not to say that the artist's life was without hardship, however, such as the death of his first wife, Marie-Pauline Gressin, as well as his only son, to smallpox, though he had two surviving daughters, each with their own artistic inclination. It was during the couple's honeymoon that Alma-Tadema first traveled to Italy; an influence which would become evident in his artwork through his depictions of ancient Greece and Rome, with a particular emphasis on the artist's fascination with the ruins of Pompeii. Not much is known about Alma-Tadema's relationship with Marie-Pauline Gressin, as the artist refused to speak of it after her death. There are three surviving portraits of her however, the 1867 portrait title My Studio, being the most acknowledged. After a period of depression and the resulting hiatus from his artwork, Lawrence Alma-Tadema's inspiration was renewed upon the meeting of his second wife, Laura Theresa Epps, who became a notable artist in her own right.

Alma-Tadema's paintings are easily recognized by their purity of color, qualities of perfection and softened finish. Rome, to him, was a place of ideal beauty, serenity and sunlight. His works are remarkable for the way in which flowers, textures and, most notably, hard, reflective surfaces such as marble are realistically depicted. Lawrence Alma-Tadema's works were highly regarded as well as highly valued during the Victorian Age, just as they are today.