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Lawrence Alma-Tadema
94 Degrees in the shade
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number of entirely unrelated circumstances
contributed towards marking the transition
between Alma-Tadema's early and late English
periods. These included the evaluation of his
work through the Grosvenor retrospective
exhibition, the 1883 researches into Pompeian
antiquity, the low level of production caused by
the remodelling of his new home and the
development in English art of certain plein
air schools of painting.
Alma-Tadema's admiration of Pre-Raphaelite
painting had undoubtedly liberated him from the
unity of colour-hue which had stemmed from his
years of study in Belgium. He also respected the
values associated with Impressionism and the
compositional devices found in Japanese art,
whilst remaining aware of the opinions of the
critics of the day. Had Alma-Tadema wished to
progress as a plein air painter of
contemporary subjects he would have undoubtedly
been able to succeed, as is demonstrated by
94 Degrees in the shade (No 205, 1876). If
he had done so his reputation might well not
have suffered the relapse it sustained in the
second and third quarters of this century. But
he could never find fulfilment in landscape
alone, as shown by the large number of
unfinished landscape studies in his oeuvre.
Stylistic experiments of the mid-1870s did,
however, succeed in moving the subjects, if not
the painter, out of doors. This phase showed a
greater originality of composition. Going
down to the river (No 247, 1879) contains a
striking composition and mixture of subjects but
was singularly unsuccessful. During his later
period he was able to tackle difficult
compositional problems effectively without
preliminary work. Experiments with striking
perspective dislocations that tended to fail in
earlier years showed considerable improvement
after the mid-1880s.
Hadrian in England (No 295, 1884) was
his only ambitious painting of 1884 and occupied
Alma-Tadema until the Royal Academy's exhibition
in April. The painting was initially intended as
a companion to the large A Sculpture Gallery
(No 164, 1874) and A Picture Gallery in Rome
(No 165, 1874) then owned by Gambart. Although
Hadrian in England was voted picture of
the year at the Academy, Alma-Tadema was
dissatisfied with its general effect and
eventually cut it into three sections, no doubt
also prompted by its failure to sell.
The Queen of Holland is said to have criticized
the slave figure ascending the staircase in a
section Alma-Tadema turned into a separate
picture (No 298, 1884). It is possible that the
Dutch Queen criticized the positioning of the
figure rather than the figure itself which is of
indisputable quality. Alma-Tadema must have
simply faced the fact that despite its brilliant
workmanship this remarkable painting failed as a
composition.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Who is it?
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The small panel Who is it? (No 300,
1884) was the only other ancient-genre picture
of 1884. During the year he painted three
contemporary portraits which were remunerative
and consumed little time. Alma-Tadema had been
in need of money since his decision to move into
a larger house. Two years earlier he had
purchased J J J Tissot's house at 17 Grove End
Road, St John's Wood, (later renumbered to 34 in
1901) but until now had been unable to tackle
the enormous task of remodelling the large
structure.
Unlike the winter of 1875-6 when Alma-Tadema had
left the contractors to work on the
reconstruction of Townshend House whilst he
travelled to Rome, on this occasion he
supervised every detail. He wrote to Ebers in
August and September about the mammoth task of
preparing drawings for the rebuilding of the
house and the problems of satisfying the Board
of Works and its 'Building Act'. According to
Alma-Tadema:
Those gentlemen seem to be happy only when
they can annoy...My pictures hardly advance
with all that and besides nothing sells
either, which makes my future rather dark. 116
In a letter to Baroness von Zedlitz, Alma-Tadema
explained the reason for spending so much time
and effort on his surroundings:
I strove to make [17 Grove End Road] so
picturesque and decorated in such diverse
styles and feeling that, even if at any time
I should not be inclined to work, my eyes
must of necessity, in passing from one room
to another, fall upon some object exciting
enough, in colour or form, as to make me
wish to paint. This is the real secret of my
having gone so far in acquiring these
surroundings, which in their turn have laid
so strong a hold on me, and have made me so
much their slave, that when I am elsewhere
somehow my pleasure in my work diminishes
and I feel that I am never really quite
satisfied with the results. 117
Alma-Tadema wrote to Vosmaer in January 1885
about the current difficulties of completing any
pictures, for example The triumph of Titus
AD 71 (No 307, 1885) on which he had worked
for over a year. In a series of letters to
William Walters of Baltimore, Alma-Tadema
continuously gave excuses for the late arrival
of the painting. He seemed to have become more
fastidious than ever with the historical details
of this oil and its standard of finish. Although
during this period he was generally more
concerned with the aesthetic ambience of his
work rather than with mere archaeology or
verisimilitude, the aesthetic side of Titus
suffered in favour of his concern with
exactitude to the extent that it could almost be
described as an 'ancient photograph'.
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Lawrence Alma-Tadema
The triumph of Titus AD 71
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Thou rose of all the roses
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Expectations
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He exhibited two of his most successful
paintings at the Royal Academy's 1885
exhibition. Expectations (No 304, 1885)
is delicate and sensitive in tone, hue and
drawing, and its stormy appearance was a
departure from Tadema's customary crystalline
skies. It was later exhibited to good reviews at
the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle. There
Robert de la Sizeranne noted that the picture
left the dreary realm of great historical events
and dwelt upon an anecdotal life, that was
uncommonly like our own.118
The other painting shown at the Summer
Exhibition, despite Meynell's comment that it
was 'weak',119
was his most famous large composition of the
decade, A reading from Homer (No 305,
1885). It was painted in the six weeks preceding
sending-in day, to replace the originally
in-tended painting which was to have been
called, 'Plato', and which after eight months of
hard work, did not satisfy the artist.120
Between 1884 and 1887 Henry G Marquand, the
noted connoisseur of art and second president of
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, commissioned
Alma-Tadema to design the Music Salon of his New
York mansion. The Salon was sumptuously arrayed
with a ceiling by Lord Leighton, a mythological
triptych illustrating music, together with two
of Tadema's paintings, Amo te, ama me
(No 273, 1881) and A reading from Homer.
Alma-Tadema also designed a suite of furniture,
including an ornate pianoforte, which the
Furniture Gazette of 1887 described as:
'one of the most superb specimens of elaborately
artistic workmanship it has ever been our good
fortune to see'.121
The Grove End Road house had lain dormant for
the last two years awaiting the sale of
Townshend House to Henry A Jones, its eventual
purchaser. But now work at St.Johns Wood began
in earnest and the Alma-Tademas moved out of
Townshend House on July 17th, 1885. The only
habitable part of the new house was a small
studio at the farther end of the garden which,
with an apartment, formed an independent
building. Alma-Tadema stayed and painted in it
for over a year whilst his wife and daughters
lived in Windsor, courtesy of a friend who had
temporarily moved abroad.122
Once the family moved into the main house, the
smaller building was destroyed in order to
increase the size of the garden.
Alma-Tadema completed five pictures at this
temporary studio, including Thou rose of all
the roses (No 310, 1885, see illustration
p.143) and An apodyterium (No 312,
1886, see illustration p.144). Both pictures
were praised at the Royal Academy's exhibition
of 1886. The Pall Mall Gazette voted An
apodyterium the 'most attractive' picture, and
Misses Vickers by John Singer Sargent the 'least
attractive'.123
The work on the house was time-consuming,
particularly in view of Alma-Tadema's quest for
perfection. So much of 1886 was devoted to its
supervision that only three paintings were
completed during the year. Two of these were
portraits, including one of Mrs Frank D Millet
(No 314). Most press reports about Alma-Tadema
during this period contained more copy about his
home than his art. It soon became one of the
most astonishing houses in London; in much the
same way as Townshend House only on a much
grander scale.
A copper-covered entrance had the Latin word of
welcome 'SALVE' above the doorway, and a brass
stairway, mistaken by some for gold, led to his
studio. A hall of panels, composed of forty-five
narrow oil paintings, roughly 32 x 6" (81.2 x
15.2 cm), was constructed around an
exedra-shaped wooden bench. Most of the panels
had been traded with artist friends.124
As well as being a beautiful and original
addition to the house, they were typical of the
friendship which existed amongst
nineteenth-century artists. Lord Leighton gave
his early version of the now famous The Bath
of Psyche, in return for which Alma-Tadema
eventually presented him with In the corner
of my studio (No 356, 1893). Briton
Riviere, John Sargent, Alfred Parsons, Sir
Edward Poynter and John Collier were among the
contributors.
The house contained a small studio in the Dutch
seventeenth century style for Laura, and a
larger semi-circular domed structure for
himself. The dome was covered with costly
aluminum giving a bright silvery cast to the
atmosphere, an effect clearly evident in the
paintings of his later English period.
The Alma-Tadema family finally moved in on
November 17th, 1886. The remodelled and enlarged
house enabled Alma-Tadema to entertain on a
lavish scale during his Monday afternoon
openings and his Tuesday evening dinners and
concerts. The once demure 'picture Sundays' at
St. John's Wood, when studios were opened to the
patrons, dealers, critics and friends to view
artists' newly finished work before sending-in
day at the Royal Academy, began to acquire a
pretentious vulgarity. Parties became unwieldy
affairs, with admittance cards and rows of
carriages, altering forever the hidden Bohemian
ambience.
During this period of Alma-Tadema's
preoccupation with his home and studio, the
Gosses and Mrs Emily Williams often invited
Laura and their daughters to join them at
Broadway in the Cotswolds. Frank and Lily Millet
had been persuaded by the New Yorker, Laurence
Hutton to give up their world travels and to
settle in Broadway. This picturesque village was
perfect for artist-illustrators like Millet, and
Edwin Austin Abbey was soon to follow. Henry
James extolled the charm of Broadway in
Harper's Magazine with phrases such as,
'The place has so much character it rubs off!'125
Soon others joined them, Americans like actress
Mary Anderson and Frederick Barnard, illustrator
of Dickens, the Epps daughters (Nellie Gosse,
Laura Alma-Tadema and Emily Williams) as well as
Alfred Parsons and William Lionel Wyllie. It was
during one of these visits in the summer of 1885
that Anna Alma-Tadema's portrait was painted by
John Singer Sargent in an oil entitled Young
girl wearing a white muslin blouse. The
Broadway summer was a tonic to Sargent, who was
in a convivial yet unhappy convalescence after
his 'Madame X' trauma.
Edmund Gosse tells of his surprise at the
usually taciturn Sargent's comments on
Alma-Tadema's art:
But most revolutionary for me, was his
serene and complete refusal to see anything
at all in the works of Alma-Tadema, then in
the zenith of his fame. 'I suppose it's
clever,' he said, 'of course it is
clever...like the things you do, don't you
know, with a what d'you call...but of course
it's not art in any sense whatever,' with
which cryptic pronouncement I was left awed
and shaken. Sargent's dislike of
Alma-Tadema's painting here expressed was
accompanied with the highest deference to
his knowledge and opinion. 126
Sargent's view of Alma-Tadema's art seemed to
stem from his theory that an artist should not
know too much about the substances they paint.
Sargent felt that one should have a love of the
paint employed, and a trained keen eye, but
should stand before the subject spontaneously.
Such theory reflects the influence of the
teachings of Claude Monet at Giverny upon
Sargent. Perhaps his criticism that Alma-Tadema
had, 'no knowledge of the fact that these
materials [marble and metal] vary in colour
according to the light playing upon them,' led
Alma-Tadema to improve vastly his sensitivity to
colour nuance during his second English phase,
which was just beginning.127
Certainly Sargent's criticism was more valid at
the start of the decade than at its conclusion.
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Lawrence Alma-Tadema
The women of Amphissa
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
The roses of Heliogabalus
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Back in London that October Sargent was busy at
his Tite Street studio painting portraits of
which, 'the jolly Alma-Tadema was one of those
he was painting.'128
The whereabouts of this portrait is unknown and
does not appear in the inventory of
Alma-Tadema's possessions. Possibly it was an
unfinished oil study. Certainly the time these
painters spent together was beneficial to both;
Alma-Tadema received a dose of fresh artistic
vigour, whilst Sargent's finances were enhanced
through Alma-Tadema's introduction of him to the
wealthy art patron Henry G Marquand.
The first two oils completed in 1887 were A
secret (No 316, 1887) and the important
The women of Amphissa (No 317, 1887, see
illustration p.145). The latter, Alma-Tadema's
principal entry at the 1887 Summer Exhibition,
became the subject of a scholarly controversy
regarding its source and meaning. The artist
viewed the academic dispute with detached
interest, but mentioned in a letter to Georg
Ebers that the source of his knowledge came
through Plutarch, and more directly from George
Eliot's Daniel Deronda (Bk II, Ch
XVII).129
In early 1887 he began preparations for a
sizeable exhibition to be held in June at the
Royal Manchester Institution's Jubilee
Exhibition commemorating the fiftieth year of
Queen Victoria's reign. Thirteen pictures were
borrowed from Alma-Tadema's collectors. Although
the number of paintings was small compared to
those shown at the Grosvenor Gallery, it was
nonetheless a considerable display of his best
work. Included in the Manchester exhibition were
Baron von Schroeder's The vintage festival
(No 122, 1870) and A sculpture gallery
(No 164, 1874), Henry Mason's The oleander
(No 281, 1882, see illustration p.142), Thou
rose of all the roses (No 310, 1885, see
illustration p.143) from the Holbrook Gaskell
collection and An apodyterium (No 312,
1886, see illustration p.144) owned by Samuel
Joshua. Other Royal Academicians also
participated.
Ill health and continuing work on the new house
only permitted Alma-Tadema to complete one
picture during the remainder of 1887. The
painting, Portia, wife of Brutus (No
319, 1887) was commissioned by the Graphic
for the Gallery of Shakespeare's Heroines, an
exhibition of twenty-one pieces by some of the
most prominent artists of the day, to be shown
in Brook Street in February 1888. Alma-Tadema's
oil received the highest acclaim.
During most of the latter months of 1887, he
worked on the elaborate and important The
roses of Heliogabalus (No 321, 1888). As it
was painted during the winter, Tadema arranged
to have roses sent weekly from the French
Riviera for four months to ensure the accuracy
of each petal. He wrote to Ebers that 'Of course
it is the bad time for roses, but painters are
always so contrary to nature, they always want
to paint what they have not and what they are
longing for.'130
He also told Baroness von Zedlitz, 'My
flowers... come from Italy, and sometimes from
Algiers, while I am plentifully supplied exotics
and English homely blossoms from the country
houses of my friends.'131
Elsewhere he commented on his petal painting:
The people of today, they will tell you that
all this minute detail is not art. But it
gives so much pleasure to paint 'em, that I
cannot help thinking it will give at least
someone pleasure to look at 'em tooo!' 132
This painting had been commissioned by Sir John
Aird for the large sum of £4000, and was
Alma-Tadema's only entry in the Academy's Summer
Exhibition of 1888. Aird also owned the sketch
of the work which was simultaneously on show at
the New Gallery. The Magazine of Art
commented:
The roses of Mr Alma-Tadema are accepted
masterpieces of execution, generally
speaking; Roses of Heliogabalus is,
to particularize, another masterpiece of
execution, in some respects its painter's
chef d'oeuvre. 133
Although the picture was a success with the
public, several other critics attacked its
validity for failing to deal with higher moral
issues. Harry Quilter insisted, like Ruskin,
that such pictures should not be painted if the
artist was incapable or unwilling to moralize on
the subject of Roman depravity.134
In the autumn of 1887, Charles Hallé and Comyns
Carr had left the Grosvenor Gallery to open the
New Gallery in Regent Street the following year.
The New Gallery's latter open-ing in May 1888
proved to be the main news of the season.
Alma-Tadema had no difficulty in transferring
his allegiance from the Grosvenor Gallery and
participated with five pieces; Portrait of
Lady Kate Fanny Thompson (No 290, 1883);
He loves me, he loves me not (No 318,
1887); Study for the roses of Heliogabalus
(No 320, 1888), Portrait of the Revd Adama
van Scheltema (No 323, 1888), van Scheltema
being the minister of the Dutch church of the
Austin Friars in London which represented
Alma-Tadema's spiritual interest; and Venus
and Mars (No 324, 1888), which was
completed just in time.
Alma-Tadema continued to exhibit at the New
Gallery for the next twelve years. His best work
was often shown there, much to the chagrin of
the Royal Academy's Council. The New Gallery
benefitted to some extent from its later
sending-in day, as it was able to receive work
which Alma-Tadema had not finished in time for
the Academy. He served on the Consultative
Committee of the New Gallery with Burne-Jones,
Sir Alfred Gilbert, Sir Hubert von Herkomer,
Holman Hunt and Sir William Blake Richmond. Lord
Leighton never exhibited at the New Gallery, but
Millais, Poynter, G F Watts, and Waterhouse
supported both institutions.
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Lawrence Alma-Tadema
A dedication to Bacchus
Lawrence Alma-Tadema
The favourite poet
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Before the end of the year another four pictures
were completed, a water-colour Midday
Slumbers (Op. CCLXXV, 1888) for exhibition
at the Royal Society of Painters in
Water-colours, Portrait of the singer, Jules
Dias de Soria (No 325, 1888), At the
shrine of Venus (No 326, 1888) which won
the Great Gold Medal at the Brussels
International Exhibition in 1897, and The
favourite poet (No 327, 1888). He was
already at work on the following year's A
dedication to Bacchus (No 330, 1889).
Alma-Tadema's 1889 exhibition season began with
only one entry in the Royal Academy's Summer
Exhibition, At the Shrine of Venus, a
successful painting which depicted an Ancient
Roman hairdresser's emporium. He called the work
his 'powder-and-puff' picture, being an ancient
version of today's beauty-shop. Punch
also thought the picture humorous, for a
caricature appeared in May. When initially
painted and exhibited, the painting featured
very prominently a balustrade, and in Punch's
lampoon this appeared as a switchback railway.
'The distinguished artist' wrote Dolman, 'saw
that there was a point in the criticism, though
humorous, and repainted the picture.'135
The most important painting of 1889 was A
dedication to Bacchus (No 330, 1889),
commissioned by Gambart for his client Baron von
Schroeder of Hamburg. It was painted as a
pendant to Schroeder's other Alma-Tadema
picture, The vintage festival (No 122,
1870). The painting contained more than sixty
figures, and reputedly sold for £7,000, making
it one of the most expensive pictures of the
nineteenth century. It was later engraved by
Auguste Blanchard, and a pamphlet was written
about it by Frederick G. Stephens. The
fifty-three-page pamphlet explained in scholarly
detail the rite of passage being confirmed upon
the young Bacchante as a small child. The
publication sold for one shilling, and its sales
eventually accrued about £2,000.
Once Gambart saw how successful the painting was
going to be, he ordered a smaller version (No
331, 1889), ostensibly for the purposes of
engraving. The price-for the smaller version was
said to have been paid for out of Gambart's
profit from the first version. It remained with
him in Nice until his death in 1903, when it
proved to be the most valuable painting in his
estate. It was bought at Christie's by Lord
Carysfort for the price of 5,600 guineas.
The year's most important exhibition was the
Exposition Universelle in Paris. Alma-Tadema's
Expectations (No 304, 1885) and the
large canvas The women of Amphissa (No
317, 1887, see illustration p.145) were both
exhibited. The painters' jury, on which Great
Britain was represented by E Armitage and H W B
Davis, pressed successfully for two English
artists, Alma-Tadema and Albert Joseph Moore.
Lord Leighton and Sir Alfred Gilbert won medals
for sculpture. The women of Amphissa
won the Medal of Honour. This meant more to
Alma-Tadema than many of the honorary titles he
often received, as it was awarded for excellence
by an international jury. He had been similarly
honoured eleven years earlier at the 1878
Exposition Universelle. In contrast to
continental practices, very few medals or awards
were given in England.
The decade closed with the production of a
number of pictures, mostly portraits. The most
successful of these was that of his close
friend, the landscapist, Ernest Waterlow (No
337, 1889). Alma-Tadema's genre work at that
time included Cloaked in yellow (No
329, 1889) of which very little is known, and a
fine oil, In a rose garden (No 335,
1889) which contains his best elements: marble,
blue sky, roses, bronze reliefs and beautiful
women.
His women have often been criticized as being
too 'English shop-girlish', and it has been said
that the 'recreator of Ancient Rome has never
drawn a really pretty woman'.136
Certainly Alma-Tadema did not follow the
Hellenic standard of Lord Leighton or Albert
Moore as many expected him to, and the beautiful
accessories contained in his pictures are
generally more readily recalled than the women.
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