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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, by Helen
-Zimmern
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema
-
-Author: Helen Zimmern
-
-Release Date: October 22, 2022 [eBook #69208]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Al Haines
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR LAWRENCE ALMA
-TADEMA ***
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[Frontispiece: AN EARTHLY PARADISE.  ("ALL THE HEAVENS OF HEAVEN IN
-ONE LITTLE CHILD.")]
-
-
-
-  Bell's Miniature Series of Painters
-
-
-  SIR LAWRENCE
-  ALMA TADEMA
-
-  R. A.
-
-
-
-  BY
-
-  HELEN ZIMMERN
-
-
-
-  LONDON
-  GEORGE BELL & SONS
-  1902
-
-
-
-
-  CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
-  TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
-
-
-
-
-TABLE OF CONTENTS
-
-
-Life of the Artist
-
-The Work of Alma Tadema
-
-The Art of Alma Tadema
-
-Our Illustrations
-
-List of the Principal Pictures by Alma Tadema, with Owners' Names
-
-List of the Principal Portraits painted by Alma Tadema
-
-
-
-
-LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
-An Earthly Paradise. ("All the Heavens of Heaven in one little
-child") _Frontispiece_
-
-A Reading from Homer
-
-At the Shrine of Venus
-
-"Ave Caesar! Iò Saturnalia!"
-
-Spring
-
-An Audience at Agrippa's
-
-Sappho
-
-The Coliseum
-
-
-  All the illustrations are reproduced by special permission
-  of the Berlin Photographic Company.
-
-
-
-
-  LIFE OF
-  SIR LAWRENCE ALMA TADEMA
-
-Laurens Alma Tadema was born on January 8th, 1836, at Dronryp, a
-little town in the very heart of the Frisian province of Holland.
-Hence by birth Tadema is Dutch, though by residence and
-naturalization he is now an Englishman.  His Dutch birth, as we shall
-see later, was not without significant effect upon the development
-and character of his art.  The father, Pieter Tadema, was an
-intelligent lawyer with a pronounced taste for music.  Unfortunately,
-while the young Laurens was still a baby, this parent died, and his
-education and upbringing were left entirely in the hands of the
-mother.  A woman of unusual capacity, she found herself at an early
-age with four children upon her hands--two, a girl and our painter,
-being her own offspring, and two her husband's by a previous
-marriage.  The means at her disposal were small; but undaunted, she
-put herself to fight single-handed the battle of life, and with such
-success, that by her unassisted efforts she was able to place all her
-children well.  Laurens, her youngest, was also something of her
-darling, and even as a child he realized all his mother was doing on
-her children's behalf.  To her early example no doubt are due his
-great powers of perseverance, his undaunted application, his
-high-minded sense of duty.
-
-From the very first his favourite plaything was a pencil and paper;
-he drew as by instinct.  A family tradition survives to the effect
-that before he was five years old, Laurens had corrected an error in
-a drawing-master's design.  Nature herself, therefore, seems to have
-pointed out his future career.  But so the mother and guardians did
-not think.  Art was regarded in those days as a profession which
-savoured of a discreditable character, and certainly not as one that
-could be rendered lucrative.  It was therefore resolved that Laurens
-should follow in his father's footsteps.
-
-This choice he found irksome to the last degree, and irksome, too,
-were the preliminary steps.  For the dead languages he had no taste,
-for all dry-bone studies he had little use.  His spare hours, and
-often his lesson hours too, were spent in drawing, and many a time he
-would have himself awakened before daybreak in order that he might
-devote the hours before school time to working at his favourite
-pastime.  He had no masters and little encouragement, nevertheless he
-plodded on, and with such good results that already, in 1851, he was
-able to exhibit in a Dutch gallery a portrait he had painted of his
-sister, a work that even in its immaturity betrays some of the
-qualities that distinguish his later and greater efforts in this
-department.
-
-But the dual effort imposed on this young soul by the fight between
-duty and inclination was too heavy a physical burden for the juvenile
-shoulders to bear.  A collapse of health occurred just as Laurens was
-growing up, and so serious did it seem that the doctors told the
-mother and guardians how, seeing the young man was not long for this
-world, it seemed needless to mar his few remaining months of
-existence by forcing him to continue his hated legal studies.  For
-this short period at least he might be allowed to be happy following
-his bent.  But what was the surprise of doctors and guardians when
-Laurens, as soon as the heavy strain was removed, recovered as though
-by magic, and rapidly became the sturdy, robust man he has remained
-all his life.
-
-It was now at last evident to those in authority that Tadema was a
-genius whose advance must not be thwarted or coerced; art, therefore,
-was reluctantly acknowledged to be his proper profession, and to
-prepare himself for this he sought admission to an art academy.
-
-Strange, nay almost incredible though it sounds, he could gain no
-admission to those of his native land.  Antwerp, at that time a noted
-artistic centre, proved more discerning and less inhospitable.  It
-chanced that Tadema entered at a moment when the rival claims of
-French pseudo-classicism and Belgian naturalism were dividing the
-Academy into factions.
-
-The one, the Pseudo-classic, was headed by Louis David, who at that
-time was living in Antwerp in exile.  The other, called the
-Belgian-Flemish School, aimed at reviving the ancient local art of
-the Low Countries.  Alma Tadema was not made of the stuff to become a
-pseudo-classic or a pseudo anything.  It was, therefore, quite
-natural that the young student ranged himself at once with those who
-sought to revive the best traditions of the Dutch and Flemish
-schools.  This native section was led by Wappers, and Tadema soon
-became one of his most enthusiastic partisans.
-
-A friend who knew him in those days has said, "Tadema did not work at
-Antwerp, he slaved in his efforts to make up for all the precious
-time that had been lost."  Of his early efforts, however, none have
-survived.  Tadema has no severer critic than Tadema himself, and to
-this day he will not allow a picture to leave his studio until he has
-made it as perfect as he knows how, so that he mercilessly destroyed
-all his tentative canvases that could not yet reproduce the perfected
-ideals of the master.  Even in those early days the subjects belonged
-either to history proper or that ancient history which is half
-enveloped in myth.
-
-It was about this time that Tadema added the prefix Alma to the
-paternal surname.  Alma was the name of his godfather, and such a
-proceeding was, it seems, not unusual in Holland.  Tadema's reason
-for taking this step was that in this wise his name in artistic
-catalogues was ranged among the A's instead of further down among the
-T's.  Undoubtedly such apparent trifles do prove of consequence in
-helping or hindering a career.
-
-From the Academy of Antwerp Alma Tadema passed into the studio of
-Hendrick van Leys, the great Belgian archæologist and historical
-painter; his teaching, coming at the moment it did, proved of great
-value to Alma Tadema.  Van Leys was just then busy decorating the
-Grand Town Hall of Antwerp with frescoes.  In this work Alma Tadema
-was allowed to assist the master, and while so doing the young artist
-gained knowledge that proved of immense importance to his own after
-career.  To van Leys' influence he owes his own historical accuracy
-and his attention to detail even the most minute.  It also helped him
-to see objects truthfully and, what is equally important, to see them
-in mass.  It is true that for a time van Leys' example was somewhat
-pernicious, since some of Alma Tadema's works of the period are
-visibly influenced by his master's dryness and harshness of
-execution.  But the young man's own native bias toward rich and full
-colour was too strong for any influence long to repress the
-remarkable and idiosyncratic capacity that throbbed within him and
-was yearning to find full expression.
-
-The subjects treated by van Leys in the Antwerp Guildhall were all
-taken from the history of the Low Countries.  It was thus that Alma
-Tadema became acquainted with their early annals by which his own
-first pictures were inspired.
-
-It was the sale of one of these, _The Education of the Children of
-Clovis_, bought by the King of the Belgians, that made it possible
-for the young artist to call his mother and sister to live with him
-in Antwerp.  This removal of his family gave Alma Tadema intense joy,
-for he is one of those wholesomely constituted beings to whom family
-life is an absolute necessity.  In order for him to be happy and to
-have his mind free to work at his congenial occupation, it is needful
-to his nature that outside circumstances be calm, and that his
-existence be surrounded by an atmosphere of tenderness and affection.
-
-Four years after joining her son, Madame Tadema died.  It is sad to
-think that this good parent did not live to witness her son's
-world-wide fame, but pleasant to know that she still heard the praise
-aroused by some of his first exhibited pictures, and to see him the
-recipient of his first gold medal, that accorded to him at Amsterdam
-in 1862.  In 1865 Tadema married a French lady, and removed to
-Brussels, where he remained until his wife's death.  This occurred in
-1869, when he was left alone with his sister and two little girls,
-the eldest, Laurence, who has developed into a gifted writer, and the
-second, Anna, the delicate, dainty artist who has inherited so much
-of her father's power for reproducing detail.
-
-It was during the lifetime of his first wife that Alma Tadema paid
-his first visit to Italy and saw with his own eyes the homes of those
-Romans who were destined to become his most familiar friends.
-
-This journey, as might be expected, exerted a strong influence upon
-his art, but it did not entirely reverse all his views and methods,
-as has been the case with many other artists.  The fact is that Alma
-Tadema had of set purpose avoided going to Italy before this date.
-On this point he had, and has always had, a very pronounced opinion.
-According to him the influence of Italy is so potent, so epoch-making
-in the life of an artist, that he should never go there until he is
-himself mature and has already found his own road.  Otherwise all he
-sees in that magic land only helps to unsettle him, and hence hinders
-rather than helps forward the evolutionary development of the man's
-own artistic idiosyncrasy.
-
-And indeed Alma Tadema's opinion would seem right on this point,
-though it is in direct opposition to the practice of all the art
-schools and academies of the world.  It is certainly strange how few
-of those who gain travelling scholarships, of those who are Prix de
-Rome and are sent to the Villa Medici, become great and original
-artists.
-
-Speaking on this theme one day Tadema remarked, "Of what use is it to
-try and graft a branch laden with fruit upon a sapling.  If the
-sapling has no trunk how is it possible to effect a graft?  Rubens
-followed the right principle, and so after having extracted from
-foreign travel the best it could give he still remained Rubens.  But
-what would have happened if he had undertaken his journey
-prematurely, that is to say before the artist inside him was fully
-developed?"
-
-On another occasion Alma Tadema expressed his views on the same
-subject: "It is my belief that an art student ought not to travel.
-When once he has become an artist, conscious of his own aim, of his
-own wants, he will certainly profit by seeing the works of the great
-masters, because he will then be able to understand them, and can
-then, if necessary, appropriate such things as may appear useful to
-him.  With one or two exceptions the Prix de Rome men are not the
-foremost of their day.  Meissonier, Gerome, van Leys, remained at
-home till they had become consummate artists.  Rembrandt never left
-Amsterdam, and Rubens, when travelling through Italy, made some
-sketches after Lionardo da Vinci which might pass as original Rubens,
-because Rubens was already Rubens when he did them.  Vandyck and
-Velasquez travelled when they were already Vandyck and Velasquez, but
-not before."
-
-The great picture dealer in those early days of Alma Tadema's art
-life was the Frenchman, M. Gambart, "Prince Gambart," as he used to
-be called in playful irony, for it was he who controlled and
-regulated the picture market of Europe, to the immense benefit of his
-own pocket.  It is but fair, however, to add that he was a generous
-as well as a discerning dealer.  When he was visiting any city in his
-commercial capacity, the whisper "Gambart is here!" would run round
-all the studios, and many a plot did unknown young artists lay in
-order to wile him into their workshops, and keen was the
-disappointment if the great man left the city after visiting only the
-studios of one or two of the most noted men, ignorant of all the
-schemes and plans that had been laid to entrap him.
-
-The young Alma Tadema was among those who plotted to secure a visit
-from the great Gambart, and he too was doomed to see his hopes
-dashed.  At last, however, these hopes were fulfilled.  It was thanks
-to van Leys, who had purposely given a wrong address to Gambart's
-coachman, directed to carry his master to the studio of a painter
-then much _en vogue_.  Hence it came that the great dealer found
-himself in front of Alma Tadema's modest studio instead.  In the
-doorway stood the young artist palpitating with excitement.  Gambart,
-who by this time had perceived his error, was too good-natured to
-turn back without entering.  After he had looked at the work upon the
-easel in silence, he suddenly asked in brusque tones, "Do you mean to
-tell me you painted this picture?"  Alma Tadema bowed his
-acquiescence, he was too overcome to speak.  "Well," replied the
-dealer, after asking the price and a few other details, "turn me out
-twenty-four other pictures of this kind and I will pay for them at
-progressive prices, raising the figure after each half dozen."
-
-This was indeed an unexpected stroke of good fortune for Alma Tadema,
-who at once set to work to fulfil his commission.  It was not all
-plain sailing however.  Gambart wished to pin down the wings of the
-artist's fantasy, and it was only after long discussion and
-bargaining that he permitted the painter to choose his themes from
-among classical subjects instead of remaining among those of the
-Middle Ages in which he had first found him engaged.
-
-It was thus that some of the most famous of the artist's earlier
-works were included in this series ordered at so much the half dozen,
-as if they had been gloves or any article of haberdashery.
-
-It took Alma Tadema four years to carry out Gambart's first
-commission.  When he was at the finish of his task, Gambart once more
-appeared upon the scene.
-
-"I want you to paint me another twenty-four pictures," was the quaint
-order given by this dealer--Maecenas again offering to remunerate
-Alma Tadema at an ascending rate of payment, only this time the
-starting point was a very much higher figure.
-
-Once more the artist consented.  The first work of the new series was
-the famous _Vintage_.  When the dealer saw it he perceived that it
-was a far more important canvas than any of its predecessors, a work,
-too, that had cost the artist far more time and labour, and he at
-once insisted upon paying for it the figure which was to have been
-given for the last half dozen.  For Gambart, despite his profession
-and his bizarre ways, was liberal and generous, and perhaps he
-understood too that it paid to be honest.
-
-Alma Tadema is fond of telling the tale how, when he had finished his
-second two dozen pictures, Gambart invited him and the whole artistic
-colony of Brussels to dinner.  To our artist's no small surprise, he
-found that it was he who was the guest of honour.  In front of his
-plate there shone a silver goblet bearing a most flattering
-inscription, while into his table-napkin was folded a large cheque, a
-sum accorded to him by Gambart beyond the stipulated price.
-
-An accident brought Tadema to London in 1870, and here he at once
-took root.  A year later he remarried, his wife this time being Miss
-Laura Theresa Epps, a woman of rare beauty, and herself a painter of
-distinction.
-
-For many years Tadema's home was in Regent's Park Road, a modest
-London residence which by his ingenuity he transformed into a fairy
-palace.  He afterwards moved into larger quarters in Grove End Road,
-where he has reared a house entirely upon his own designs that
-repeats on a larger and more sumptuous scale the beauties of the
-earlier residence.
-
-In Alma Tadema's case the environment does indeed explain the man.
-His keen sense of beauty, his classic tastes, his love of flowers,
-make themselves felt in every nook and corner of his abode; in the
-silver-walled studio with its onyx windows, in its mosaic atrium, in
-which a fountain splashes, in Lady Tadema's special room with its
-oak-beamed ceiling, its Dutch panelling, its old Dutch furniture, in
-its low-windowed library packed with splendid illustrated works on
-artistic themes, in its pretty garden ever gay with blossoms, with
-its fish pond and trellised colonnade.  In almost every room can be
-reconstructed the scenes of his pictures; the lustrous marble basin
-in the sky-lit atrium bears upon its sloping rim a heap of withered
-rose leaves, faintly recording that rich shower of fragrance which
-once suggested a striking detail in the Heliogabalus picture.  The
-burnished brass steps appearing at frequent intervals figure over and
-over again in the pictures of Roman villas and classical
-environments.  Perhaps one of the most striking features of this
-house, which is filled with objects of priceless worth, is its
-unevenness of pavement.  There are such endless nooks and alcoves,
-each room is conceived upon a different scale and may be lower or
-higher than its immediate neighbour, and yet, most marvellous of all,
-the cluster of beautiful apartments perfectly harmonize one with
-another.  From the oblong entrance hall, over whose fireplace runs
-the greeting,
-
-  "I count myself in nothing else so happy
-  As in a soul remembering my good friends",
-
-whose wall decorations consist in panels painted for the artist by
-his friends, to the low-lying dining-room, looking upon the garden
-and shaded by the great tree which it is Tadema's delight to watch in
-its leaf unfolding, its full summer verdure and its winter gauntness,
-all is beautiful, all is sympathetic, and all is the result of an
-ardent appreciation of the artistic possibilities of the most humble
-objects of domestic life.
-
-Through all the rooms are scattered portraits of its beautiful women
-inmates, here a statue of Lady Alma Tadema, there a window into whose
-delicately coloured panes are fashioned the likenesses of the quaint
-little girls who have now grown to women, outside under the window of
-these same daughters' room is a beautiful bit of sculptured frieze
-bearing the interwoven tulips of Holland, lilies of France, and
-English roses.
-
-The most frequent guest finds continual surprises in this house whose
-every accessory is as carefully conceived as one of the details of
-its master's pictures.
-
-Holland, Greece, London and Rome have all contributed their quota to
-render this house _sui generis_, and once we have passed the postern
-gate that leads from Grove End Road into the garden we instinctively
-feel ourselves incorporated into another world, another clime, and
-London and its squalor, its fogs and cold, are forgotten for a time.
-
-It is in this congenial _milieu_ that the artist works, a _milieu_
-helpful and suggestive to the special character of his art.  His life
-since his removal to England has been uneventful.  The saying, "Happy
-those who have no history" might be applied to Tadema.  Hard work,
-persistent study, unremitting efforts after ever greater perfection
-of style and treatment, sum up Alma Tadema's artistic existence.
-
-[Illustration: A READING FROM HOMER.]
-
-He is essentially a sociable man, a lover of his kind.  His work is
-only interrupted by visits from friends, by weekly afternoon and
-evening receptions, so charming that the entrée is greatly coveted,
-by the claims upon his time as Professor at the Royal Academy and
-member of the Council; demands all of which he fulfils with his
-characteristic strenuousness and high sense of duty.  In 1876 he
-became an Associate Member of the Royal Academy, and in 1879 a Royal
-Academician.  In 1899 he received the well-merited honour of
-knighthood at the hands of Queen Victoria.
-
-It is not often that Alma Tadema leaves the house to which he is
-devoted, both for its beauty and because it harbours all whom he
-holds dear, for he is essentially a domestic man.  Occasional visits
-to the English country, which he greatly admires, and rare trips to
-Italy, which he naturally loves, are all the holidays he allows
-himself, and even during such changes of place he does not permit
-himself rest, but is ever studying fresh effects of light and colour,
-fresh combinations, imbibing fresh artistic suggestions.  Nothing
-escapes Tadema's wide-open eyes; he is never too weary to receive a
-new impression.
-
-As a man he has about him no trace of the pedantry which might be
-anticipated from the archaic character of his work.  He is generous,
-genial, warm-hearted, a lover of jokes and anecdotes good and bad, a
-cheery optimist, a boon companion in the best sense of that term.  He
-is also the truest and most faithful of friends, and the kindest and
-most large-hearted of teachers.  His appreciation of the works of
-others is wide and sincere, and, no matter how different this work
-may be from his own style and taste, he gives to it its due meed of
-praise, provided it be executed with honest intent.
-
-London society is familiar with this wiry, strong-set figure, with
-this face of kindly comeliness, with the cheery voice, with the
-frank, observant eye, the merry quips and pranks, the energy, the
-intense love of all that is great, and good, and lovely.  To be with
-him is to feel invigorated, for he seems to have so much superfluous
-vitality that he is able to dispense it to his surroundings.
-
-Of his art he rarely speaks, and still more rarely of his
-art-theories.  Indeed he is no theorist, though he knows perfectly
-well at what ends he aims, and his art, like his personality, is
-homogeneous throughout.  But it is not in his nature to analyze, he
-follows his instincts, and these are true and right.  "To thine own
-self be true," has been his life motto, and faithfully has he served
-it.
-
-
-
-
-THE WORK OF ALMA TADEMA
-
-The first in date of Alma Tadema's preserved paintings is a cycle of
-pictures dealing with Merovingian times.  To these Merovingians he
-was early attracted, partly perhaps because in his old home and
-birthplace relics, such as coins, medals, armour belonging to that
-epoch were the only antiquities the soil could boast.  Added to this,
-chance threw into his way Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks and
-the quaint old chronicler completely captivated his fancy.  From this
-treasure-house of fact and fiction he drew a series of pictures
-which, if no more historically correct than Gregory himself, were
-nevertheless carefully pondered pieces of archæological improvisation
-in which the minute studies of accessories made while still in Frisia
-stood Alma Tadema in good stead.  _Clotilde at the Grave of her
-Grandchildren_ was an incident entirely without foundation in fact,
-but one of Gregory's stories had suggested the situation, and Tadema
-at once realized its dramatic and pictorial possibilities.  In
-treatment this canvas was still a little hard and dry, the influence
-of van Leys' somewhat arid manner was too apparent.  The same
-criticism applies, but in a less degree, to its successor, the work
-that won for Alma Tadema his first success, _The Education of the
-Children of Clovis_.  This, too, was inspired by the old Prankish
-chronicler, and here also, as often in Alma Tadema's art, a good deal
-of previous knowledge is requisite in order fully to appreciate the
-composition.  It cannot be denied that this is one of the
-difficulties of truly understanding the painter's work.  His subjects
-are apt to be at times a little too archæological, a little too
-literary for immediate or easy explanation.  Their atmosphere is
-inclined to be somewhat remote from common knowledge or interest.
-Nevertheless in this canvas the tale is sufficiently told, and
-already the real Alma Tadema is making himself felt in the greater
-richness of the colouring and in the skilful disposition of the
-figures.  Quite especially free and energetic is the figure of the
-eldest boy throwing his axe at the mark, and that of his teacher
-looking on intently to see how his charge conducts himself during
-this public exposition of his prowess.  This work, which is now the
-property of the King of the Belgians, was bought by the Antwerp
-Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts for the paltry sum of
-one thousand six hundred francs, an amount which at the time seemed a
-large remuneration to its painter.
-
-This picture was followed by yet others, all inspired by the
-Merovingian chronicles that had taken such a firm hold upon the
-artist's imagination.  In each successive picture the scheme of
-colour grew fuller and warmer, the dull manner of the master van Leys
-was more and more abandoned, the real Alma Tadema made himself more
-and more felt.  His own individuality, his own methods of conception
-became manifest.  This is especially the case in a picture called
-_Gonthram Bose_, another of the Merovingian series.  We here see Alma
-Tadema already applying his peculiar capacity of filling in every
-inch of the canvas, thus often giving to the tiniest space a sense of
-vastness, of distance, of immensity, that renders his smallest works
-such marvellous gems of concentrated beauty.  Of course it took time
-to learn to do this without arousing a sense of overcrowding, a fault
-that occurs even in one or two of his later works, but more and more
-as he advanced this danger was eliminated and the capabilities hidden
-in this artifice became ever more manifest.  The little figures with
-which he peopled his pictures also steadily advanced in correctness
-of movement and bore about them a local physiognomy that revived an
-entire historical epoch in a few square inches of canvas.  The whole
-Merovingian period seemed incarnated in these works.
-
-This same capacity of resuscitating a remote historical time was yet
-more pleasantly revealed when Alma Tadema at last turned from
-painting these gorgeous but bloodthirsty barbarians, and applied
-himself instead to the mysterious land of Egypt, the source of all
-culture and all knowledge, the land he has never seen, but which he
-has apprehended so wonderfully with the eye of his brain.  The German
-Egyptologist and novelist, George Ebers, a friend of Alma Tadema's,
-to whom he dedicated one of his historical tales, once asked him what
-it was that had turned him from his Franks towards the land of Isis.
-Alma Tadema replied, "Where else should I have begun as soon as I
-became acquainted with the life of the ancients?  The first thing a
-child learns of ancient history is about the Court of Pharaoh, and if
-we go back to the source of art and science must we not return to
-Egypt?"
-
-This migration to the Nile closed what may be termed Alma Tadema's
-first artistic period, which embraces the ten years that lie between
-1852 and 1862.  In 1863 he exhibited his _Egyptians Three Thousand
-Years Ago_.  Here, though archæological knowledge was manifest,
-Tadema did not sacrifice his picture to a pedantic display of
-learning.  On the contrary, it rather seemed his object to show that
-these dead and gone old Egyptians, whom we are too inclined to think
-of as the stiff, lifeless figures that greet us from the temples and
-stone carvings of their native land, were men and women like to
-ourselves.  A work such as this exhibited great study, more perhaps
-than that demanded by his Merovingians.  But from the outset it was
-evident that Alma Tadema would not covenant with prevailing fashions
-in art in order to buy public favour at a cheap price.  He would take
-up no task which did not commend itself to his æsthetic faith, to his
-individual inclination, to the particular preferences of his taste.
-Never, even at the outset of his career, when financial success had
-not yet come, did Alma Tadema convert his function of artist into an
-easy or lucrative profession.
-
-In _The Mummy, The Widow, The Egyptian at his Doorway_, Tadema for
-the first time applies the methods of genre painting to the treatment
-of antique themes.  This novel manner of dealing with archæology,
-which is really of his creation, has found a large school of
-imitators, none of whom, however, approach the master either for
-spontaneity of conception or skill of execution.  This leaning
-towards genre and its application to subjects that had hitherto not
-invited treatment in this manner, may probably be traced to Tadema's
-Dutch origin, seeing that the Dutch were past masters in this form of
-composition, which by them was chiefly used to illustrate trivial
-moments of their immediate environment.
-
-The most remarkable of these works is the _Death of the First-born_;
-indeed, Tadema ranks it as his best picture, and has never yet
-accepted any offer for its purchase.  It hangs permanently in his
-studio, and is looked upon by his family as a priceless possession.
-The date of this work is 1873, when the artist had already begun to
-turn his attention to those Greco-Roman themes with which his fame
-has since been so closely associated.  As the picture is not familiar
-to the world from reproductions, we will describe it at length.
-
-In this picture of the last, worst plague of Egypt, we find pathos,
-despair, and that silent grief which "whispers to the o'er-fraught
-heart and bids it break."
-
-We enter a great Egyptian temple where darkness and gloom, oppressive
-in their intensity, are only relieved by the gleam of moonlight seen
-through a distant doorway, and by a single lamp which makes the
-surrounding shadows more deep.  In the foreground is a pillar with
-hieroglyphics inscribed upon it, its capital lost in the darkness
-gives a strange sense of awe, but the pervading influence, the power
-of the scene, is the apprehension of death which seems to rest over
-the mighty columns, which fills the great temple, which bows to the
-earth Pharaoh himself, for it is his first-born who lies dead before
-him.  Priests and musicians are gathered round lamps standing on the
-floor.  The priests are chanting their prayers, and the musicians are
-touching strange-looking instruments.  The entire effect is gloomy
-and awe-inspiring in the extreme.  The colouring is sombre with its
-inimitable use of greens and browns.  The surroundings fitly prepare
-us for the central group of four persons who cluster round the figure
-of the desolate king.  It is one of the extraordinary effects of this
-picture that the accessories strike the observer first, and in their
-mournful disposition prepare him for the chief interest, although
-both spiritually and actually, Pharaoh and his attendants hold the
-centre of the canvas.  The king sits upon a low stool, and across his
-knees lies the slender body of his first-born.  The dead face of the
-almost nude youth is indescribably sweet, and around his neck hangs
-limply a strangely-fashioned golden chain, probably bearing some
-amulet to shield the king's son from harm.  The king, upon whose
-figure the light falls, wears his crown, the brilliant jewels of
-which seem to mock his helpless grief.  He sits rigid, immovable, the
-strong, proud man will make no sign, but there is one feature which
-even his powerful will cannot control, his mouth trembles ever so
-slightly, so faintly that at first it is not distinguishable.  But
-what grief it expresses, this faint indistinctness of outline!  This
-figure might be taken as the embodiment of grief, grief fixed and
-immutable, and like all true emotion, truly expressed, with not a
-hint of morbidness.  The mother sits near, bowed to the earth in her
-sorrow.  She, too, has striven to be strong, and even in this
-outburst of despair, shows self-restraint.  At the other side of
-Pharaoh sits the physician whose powers have been useless in this
-combat.  Outside the temple door two figures approach.  They are
-Moses and Aaron coming to behold their work.
-
-This is a truly marvellous picture, and it is not strange that Alma
-Tadema retains it in his own hands.  It is so true, so complex, so
-alive, that at every view, with every changing light it reveals new
-features, new aspects of sorrow, and yet with its profundity of
-sorrow it is not too tragic to live with.  It is so true, so human,
-so beautiful, and so deep, that it does not repel.  About Alma
-Tadema's art there is nothing false or strained; he is always
-healthy, there is in his nature no strain of morbidness, and hence
-whatever he paints appeals direct to the truest feelings, whether he
-paints the glad, sensuous world of the ancients, or the tragedies
-which befell them, there is never in his work the sickly
-introspection, the hyper-analysis of modern days.  Just as in his
-_Tarquinius and Emperor_, Alma Tadema proved that he could express
-tragedy, so here he has shown conclusively that he can express pathos
-and that he is possessed of a deep imagination, which, unfortunately,
-he puts forth all too rarely.  Had Alma Tadema created but this one
-superb work he would be among the greatest artists of our time.
-
-This _Death of the First-born_ is a true representation of Egyptian
-life, and, as if to prove how accurate are the artist's instincts, it
-is noteworthy that he placed at the feet of the dead a wreath of
-flowers which strikingly resembles a like garland, found ten years
-after the picture was painted, in the royal tombs of Deir el Bahari.
-
-Meantime however, as we have said, he had begun to paint genre
-pictures of Greek and Roman life, and so numerous are these, so
-rapidly did he produce them, that it is impossible in our limited
-space to enumerate even the most important.  We have chosen a few at
-random, taking care however to select from among the most noteworthy.
-One of his finest early Roman pictures is, beyond question, the
-_Tarquinius Superbus_, in which Tadema has shown what tragic power he
-could wield when he wished.  But his general inclination leads him to
-let us see his men and women merely as they present their outward
-faces.  He cares not to look beyond, to apprehend the informing
-intention, the psychic force of his creations.
-
-This idiosyncrasy is based on the artist's character which is
-singularly direct, and to which introspection and analytic research
-is distasteful.  Of quite a different character is the _Pyrrhic
-Dance_, a wonderful _tour de force_.  We are made to feel that these
-Dorian fighters, executing a war-dance, are heavily armed, and that
-it is only their skill and agility which makes their choregraphic
-evolutions appear light under such heavily handicapped conditions.
-Indeed, as we know from history, but few could execute with grace and
-skill this "mimic warrior armour game" as Plato calls it, it might so
-easily become ridiculous and it is not the least of Tadema's merits
-in this canvas that he has treated it without the least touch of
-exaggeration, and with a gravity and dignity that are truly admirable.
-
-_The Vintage_, painted just before Tadema's removal to England, is in
-some respects one of his most important and most characteristic
-works.  It has been objected that Alma Tadema is essentially a
-painter of repose.  To this picture as well as to the _Pyrrhic Dance_
-this criticism cannot be applied.  The first thing that strikes us as
-we look at the work is the sense of motion and music which it
-imparts.  Another of the objections sometimes made to Alma Tadema's
-work is that his men and women, but more especially his women, are
-not in accordance with usually recognized classical standards.  His
-favourite types are rather of the heavy build that would be connected
-more readily with Holland than with Rome, though in some of the
-portrait busts of empresses preserved in the Vatican, and other
-sculpture galleries, we see frequent precedents for this preference,
-a preference that became more and more emphasized after the artist's
-removal to England.  In learning, in technical excellence, in the
-remarkable finish of all the multitudinous details, the work is
-admirable.  Here, too, he has not permitted the details to distract
-our attention from the main intention of the picture; we think first
-and last of the procession and put the accessories, correct and
-wonderfully painted though they are, into their proper artistic
-place.  Alma Tadema's pictures may at times seem to proclaim too
-loudly the equality of all visible things, and this equal attention
-to each object sometimes prevents the concentration of our attention
-upon the central point of interest.  It is this peculiarity which led
-Ruskin to make his savage and most unfair onslaught upon the painter
-in his Academy Notes of 1875.
-
-The _Sculpture Gallery_, a newer and more skilful version of a
-previous picture on the same theme, painted in 1864, furnished the
-tag upon which Ruskin hung his attack.  This later _Sculpture
-Gallery_ was the companion to the Picture Gallery exhibited at the
-Royal Academy in 1874, which was again a sort of extension of an
-earlier work called the _Roman Amateur_.  In the atrium of a Roman
-house, a fat swarthy Roman, a man of little distinction, no doubt a
-_nouveau riche_ of his period, exhibits to his visitors a silver
-statue.  There is an impressive pomposity about his manner, as though
-he were dilating upon the statue's intrinsic metallic worth rather
-than upon its artistic merits, and his guests seem to be on the level
-of his own artistic tastes.
-
-In the two versions of the _Sculpture Gallery_ this idea is extended.
-In the first version the famous Lateran statue of Sophocles was
-introduced, and indeed forms the central point of interest.  Around
-it are grouped three Romans, one woman and two men, evidently eagerly
-discussing its artistic merits.  All Tadema's fine draughtsmanship,
-all his unique skill in the painting of lucent surfaces is here to
-the fore.
-
-The second _Sculpture Gallery_ was yet more elaborate in design and
-purpose.  The work of art exhibited in this instance is placed within
-a back shop of the epoch, the front towards the streets being
-reserved for smaller and less important objects.  A company of rich
-amateurs has evidently sauntered in to behold the latest acquisitions
-of the dealer.  A colossal vase, poised upon a revolving pedestal, is
-especially claiming their attention.  A slave slowly turns it round
-that they may view it in every light.  We know him to be a slave by
-the crescent-shaped token he wears suspended from his neck.  The
-effect of in-door and out-door illumination, and of reflected light
-from the shimmering surfaces of the objects in the shop is rendered
-with scientific accuracy and rare technical ability.  Full of
-ingenious and most difficult light effects, too, is the _Picture
-Gallery_, in which we see a crowd of noble Roman dames and knights
-admiring the triptychs of the period wherewith the walls are hung and
-the easels loaded.
-
-This theme, with considerable variants, had been treated once before
-by Tadema.  Indeed, he is fond of repeating his initial idea in
-different shape.  This time the work is called _Antistius Labeon_.
-It represents an amateur Roman painter, a contemporary of Vespasian,
-showing off his latest productions to the friends who have dropped
-into his studio.  It seems, so Tadema tells us, that the gentleman
-painter, who was a Roman pro-consul, was rather looked down upon by
-his contemporaries for his amateur tastes.  It was thought
-gentlemanly in those days to admire art but not to practise it, an
-idea that even in early Victorian days we find not quite extinct.
-
-[Illustration: AT THE SHRINE OF VENUS.]
-
-It was on these two fine works, _The Sculpture Gallery_ and _The
-Picture Gallery_, that Alma Tadema's world-wide reputation was first
-based.  A great continental dealer bought them, and as engravings as
-well as in the widely exhibited originals they became familiar to all
-lovers of the beautiful.  From this time onward Alma Tadema could not
-paint fast enough to satisfy the demands made upon his brush; but
-this success only increased the rigidity of the demands he made upon
-himself.  The more successful Alma Tadema has been, the more
-conscientious has he become, a rare quality, and one that cannot be
-too highly praised or too much admired.  His passionate love of
-colour, a passion that seems to have grown upon him as time passed,
-and as he abandoned more and more his earlier drier manner, found
-expression after his election as associate to the Royal Academy in a
-number of small but most perfect little canvases that often dealt
-with nothing in particular, and to which the artist was at times
-embarrassed to give names, or whose titles, when found, were not
-specially distinctive, but which each in their kind was a perfect gem
-of technique of radiant tints.  And after all, why need a picture
-have a name, _à tout prix_?  Whistler was not so wrong when he
-labelled some of his works as "Symphonies" and "Harmonies" of colour.
-Such titles would best describe many of Alma Tadema's smaller colour
-creations.
-
-And now, his own line fully found, Tadema worked on steadily, without
-haste or pause.  In a _milieu_ far distant indeed from the scene of
-their creation, a London atmosphere, a London sky, he caused to live
-again for a while in effigy the men and maidens of Magna Graecia, of
-Rome, of Parthenope, and above all of Sicily, for Tadema's out-door
-scenes are too southern in feeling and in tone even for the furthest
-shores of the Peninsula, and belong by rights to the Syren isle.
-Here alone are found the unclouded sapphire skies, the seas
-sun-bathed and innocent of angry waves, the luxuriant vegetation, the
-mad wealth of roses that seem to spring by magic from Tadema's brush,
-and are the outcome of his fervid imagination that can behold these
-things with his mental vision while fog and grim winter are raging
-outside.  It is one of Tadema's rare and precious gifts that he can
-see his picture finished before he has put brush to canvas.  It is
-this gift which makes it unnecessary for him to execute the usual
-amount of sketching, indeed, Tadema may be said not to sketch at all;
-it is this that lends to his hand his rare security, and this that
-helps towards his precision of execution.  Everything is clearly,
-sharply outlined in his art.  His canvases show no quiet, slumberous
-distances, no mysterious twilights of life or nature.  All is
-evident, all is distinct, all sharply defined as in the meridional
-landscape that he loves, and all this is rendered with that accuracy,
-with those small touches of extreme sharpness, which recall the
-precise methods of his Dutch pictorial ancestors.  These are merits,
-but they are merits that also contain hidden within their excellence
-the germs of what by some may be considered as defects.  There is apt
-to be a lack of repose about a picture of Alma Tadema's, our eye is
-not necessarily led at once to the central purpose of the work, each
-action seems of equal importance, and is painted in the same scheme
-of values.
-
-As an example of Alma Tadema's painstaking, and of how he lets no
-trouble or expense stand in the way of making his pictures just as
-perfect as possible, it may be mentioned that during the whole of the
-winter when he was at work on his _Heliogabalus_ the artist sent
-twice a week for boxes of fresh roses from the Riviera.  Thus each
-flower may be said to have been painted from a different model.
-
-Only once in his life did Alma Tadema paint a life-size nude figure.
-This was the work called _A Sculptor's Model_.  It was inspired by
-the Venus of the Esquiline, then but lately unearthed; the painter's
-intention was to show, as far as possible, the conditions under which
-such a masterpiece might have been created.  It was also painted as a
-model for his pupil John Collier, one of the very few pupils whom
-Alma Tadema has ever received into his studio.
-
-It should be mentioned that Alma Tadema at times paints in water
-colours as well as in oils, a medium he manipulates most
-successfully, and which lends itself most admirably to his limpid
-effects of sea and sky.  He has also of late years taken to portrait
-painting.  His wonderfully careful technique has here full play, and
-the perfection of finish fills us with admiration.  But, despite
-their merits, it is hard to think of these portraits as Alma
-Tadema's; with his name, whether we will or no, we are forced to
-associate blue skies, placid seas, spring flowers, youths and maidens
-in the heyday of life, and a sense of old-world happiness and
-distance from our less beautiful modern existence and surroundings.
-
-
-
-
-THE ART OF ALMA TADEMA
-
-It is fortunately not possible to define with real precision the
-position Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema occupies in art, since happily he
-is still living and working among us--and long may he so live to turn
-out yet other scores of sun-filled joyous canvases, speaking to a
-weary and hard-driven generation, of vanished and more placid times,
-when existence was less restless and more æsthetically conceived!
-Nor, though he has had imitators by the dozen, is it as yet possible
-to determine the exact nature of the influence he has exerted upon
-the art of his age, for with rare exceptions these imitators have
-turned out frigid, lifeless works that bear the same relation to the
-master's style and manner as oleographs bear to original paintings.
-Neither is it quite possible to classify Alma Tadema's manner.  A
-number of influences, partly extraneous, or accidental, partly the
-result of birth and atavism, have resulted in causing his art to be
-_sui generis_.  If he must be classed at all, although a much younger
-man, he might be grouped with those artists who came to the fore on
-the continent soon after the upheaving epoch of 1848, men who
-endeavoured to revive the more intimate life of Greece and Rome upon
-their canvas, and who in France went by the name of neo-Greeks or
-Pompeists.  This trend was a reaction from the older classical school
-that was headed by Jacques Louis David, whose productions were
-distinguished by a certain austere dignity of conception, by
-elaborate accuracy of form, but, on the other hand, were generally
-cold and unreal in sentiment, unpleasantly monotonous in colouring,
-and defective in their arrangement of light and shade.
-
-It has been most felicitously remarked, that if David may be named
-the Corneille of the Roman Empire, Alma Tadema may be said to be its
-Sardou.  He has made his ancients more living, he has resuscitated
-them with less visible effort; he seems to have an instinctive
-comprehension of antiquity.  His is not the Rome of Ingres, of
-Poussin, of grand public ceremonies, of battles, of the Forum and the
-rostrum, of actions that upheaved the world; he gives us instead the
-home life of this people, Rome such as we divine it to have been from
-Cicero's letters to Atticus, the life of the ancients as presented to
-us in the plays of Terence and Plautus.  It is not mere historical
-painting that he aims at, indeed his art bears the same relation to
-history as does the anecdote to serious narrative, a lighter species
-which nevertheless often throws a brighter light upon the past than
-scores of learned tomes.  And this result is largely achieved by his
-love of detail, which causes him to crowd his canvas with masses of
-those authentic bibelots which ancient and recent excavations and the
-aid of photography have brought within the reach of all.
-
-The elder classical painters thought to render their work more truly
-classical by placing their protagonists in large empty monumental
-spaces, just as Corneille and Racine thought to give the true
-classical ring to their plays when they removed them from every-day
-emotions, and rolled out high-sounding and rhetorical phrases.  Alma
-Tadema, instead, is convinced that these dead-and-gone folk were in
-all fundamental essentials like to ourselves, that they lived, loved,
-joked and chattered just as we do, and this conviction has found
-expression in his pictures that deal less and less with the graver,
-grander moments of their existence, and more with the petty intimate
-details of their home life.  His pictures might almost be said to be
-a series of instantaneous reproductions of the life of the Roman
-patricians.  The plebs have no interest for him, they rarely figure
-in his canvases, and when they do their figures are entirely
-subordinate.  The Roman of Alma Tadema's pictures abides in a world
-of idle luxury, in which nothing matters much unless it ministers to
-sensuous enjoyment.  It is the outward seeming of life and objects
-that attracts him, their inner deeper meaning matters to him as
-little as their subject.  The life aim of his men and women seems to
-be to exist happily and placidly, untroubled by material cares or
-disturbing emotions.
-
-In his method of composing his pictures Alma Tadema's manner is also
-the absolute antithesis of what is commonly regarded as the classic
-method.  So far is he from putting his principal personages well into
-the middle of his canvas, from following a pyramidal arrangement,
-that in his effort to be natural and unconventional, he even at times
-commits extravagances in order to escape from the beaten path, as,
-for example, in his portrait of Dr. Epps, in which there are shown
-one head and a bust, no arms, but three hands, the third being that
-of the unseen patient whose pulse the physician is supposed to feel.
-This is an extreme instance, but a tendency to dismember his figures,
-to show us only half a figure, a detached head, a hand without a
-body, a foot without a visible leg, occurs every now and again, and
-not certainly to the detriment of a realistic effect, but most
-certainly to the detriment of composition as classically understood.
-This tendency, no doubt, results from his love of Japanese art, an
-art that has had a visible influence upon his methods of disposing
-his composition.  Indeed, it might almost be said that Alma Tadema
-does not compose his pictures at all.  He certainly does not do so
-according to the ordinary acceptance of the term in art, he rather
-disposes his personages about his canvas, apparently at hazard, much
-as they might group themselves in real life.  But under this seeming
-negligence, is hidden great care, immense painstaking, a striving to
-give to his pictures their maximum of expressive force, for in Alma
-Tadema's work, everything as well as every person, has its suggestive
-purpose.  As M. de la Sizeranne has well said, few painters have less
-of that element which in the jargon of the studio is known as _poids
-mort_.  But this very merit causes his pictures to lack
-concentration.  There is no point on which our eye fixes at once as
-the central, most important, and the meaning of the whole may often
-be hidden in some accessory that the ordinary observer is apt to
-overlook.  Thus, for example, in one of his Claudius series is seen,
-poised on a cippus, a head of Augustus, dominating as it were the
-whole bloody, rowdy, undignified scene.  How many who see the work
-have remarked that the bust is turned toward a picture that
-represents a naval engagement, and that underneath this picture is
-written the single word "Actium," suggestive of a vast antithesis.
-Subtle little touches such as these often render Alma Tadema's more
-important works a puzzle to those unversed in classic lore, and
-oblige us to class him, if classed he must be, among the erudite
-artists whose roots are planted in the soil of literature.  Yet,
-surely, if there exists a domain where erudition should take a
-secondary place it is that of art, which shares with poetry the high
-privilege of soaring so high as to have the right to disdain the mere
-minutiae of history, the petty details of life.
-
-Happily, Alma Tadema is saved from being a cold, unattractive
-antiquarian painter by his rare keen sense of beauty, and here again
-we come in contact with the difficulty of ranging him as we might
-range his pseudo-classic brethren.  The spectator who misses the
-allusions, the meaning of his subject-pictures, nevertheless finds
-matter for full and intense enjoyment as he contemplates the lovely
-fabrics, the cool half-shades, the clear sunlight, the exquisite
-flowers, the heat-saturated sea and sky, the marbles and the
-bric-à-brac that appear on almost every canvas, and are painted with
-a skill, a consummate science that captivates the connoisseur, and
-with a reality that delights the uninstructed crowd.
-
-Briefly, Alma Tadema's double nationality, his Dutch birth, his long
-English residence, coupled with his classic tastes, his admiration
-for the Japanese, have contributed to render his art a curious
-complex of conflicting tendencies, tendencies that in themselves are
-again welded into a harmonious whole by the idiosyncrasy of the man.
-We seem to feel, even through the medium of his pictures, his
-kind-heartedness, his quick appreciation of all that is good and
-beautiful, his dislike of mystery, of vain searchings in dark mental
-places, his love of sunshine, moral and real.  Others might paint his
-portraits as well, but none can paint those exquisite southern idylls
-of which such numbers have issued from his brush and brain.  He has
-been called the painter of repose.  I should rather be inclined to
-style him the painter of gladness, of the joy of life.  The artistic
-world has certainly been rendered the sunnier by his works.
-
-
-
-
-OUR ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-Amongst the many famous and popular pictures by Alma Tadema it is a
-little difficult to know which to select, and our object has been to
-make a representative collection, while avoiding those which are
-already familiar to all through the windows of the print shops.  A
-work that shows him in one of his most tragic moments, a mood he does
-not often exhibit, for this master of sunny nature prefers to paint
-sunny themes, is the _Ave Caesar!  Iò Saturnalia!_  The story of
-Caligula's tragic ending and the election of Claudius as Emperor
-seems to have had a curious attraction for the artist.  He painted
-the theme three times, though with considerable variants, first as
-the _Claudius_, then as _The Roman Emperor_, and finally, and in its
-finest version, as the _Ave Caesar!  Iò Saturnalia!_
-
-The first of the series on the subject simply styled _Claudius_
-though full of life, solemnity and graphic force, was surpassed by
-its successors, into which the artist infused more of his wonderful
-genius for archæological indivination.  This first Claudius belonged
-to a set of pictures ordered from Alma Tadema by the dealer M.
-Gambart.
-
-The second, _The Roman Emperor_, was painted after his removal to
-London.  In this new version Alma Tadema also adopted a scheme of
-colour that was absolutely new to him, to the consternation, it is
-said, of some of his clients, who saw in this departure an alarming
-tendency towards pre-Raphaelitism.  According to them it was
-distinctly unfair to the public for this artist to change his style.
-Where were the white marbles, the dresses of pale, soft tints to
-which they were accustomed in his canvases?  Here he had boldly
-introduced a girl of the Roman people with hair of pure copper tints,
-and even the corpse was clad in a dress of brilliant blue and vivid
-purple, while the purity of the marble pavement was stained not only
-with the blood of the slain, but was also a confusion of restless
-coloured mosaics that distracted the eye from the picture's main
-purpose.  Criticism waxed hot around this canvas which seemed to
-threaten a revolution in the artist's methods.
-
-But it was only a passing phase and proved of no real import.  Alma
-Tadema's pictures continued as before to be distinguished by a
-certain calm and majestic solemnity, such as suits best the Roman
-people whom by choice he represented.  Still this third and finest
-version of the Claudius story can scarcely be classed among his
-calmer works.  It is dramatic and full of movement.  For brilliant
-colouring, for vigorous drawing, for its admirable archæological
-verity this picture is distinguished even among Alma Tadema's many
-distinguished works.  Note too that it is painted in proportions so
-small as would hardly suffice a latter-day Italian artist for the
-depicting of a cauliflower.  But Alma Tadema, far from thinking that
-a canvas must be large in proportion to the importance of his
-subject, is of the opinion that minute dimensions tend to excite the
-imagination and give to a work a more poetic and ideal character.
-
-
-[Illustration: "AVE CÆSAR! IO SATURNALIA."]
-
-In this _Ave Caesar!  Iò Saturnalia!_ we look upon the man whose
-supposed imbecility saved him from the cruel fate to which Caligula
-subjected his relations, found by the soldiery in a corner of the
-palace where he had hid himself in his dread, a hiding place whence
-the Praetorians dragged him forth and proclaimed him their ruler.  We
-see the elected Emperor, his face blanched with terror, holding for
-support to the curtain which has lately hid his trembling form from
-the pursuing soldiers and the populace.  These ironically salute him
-as Imperator.  Especially obsequious and excellent in rendering is
-the figure of the guard who has drawn aside the heavy drapery.  A
-confused heap of corpses, all that is left of those who have been
-slain in defence of their murdered master, litter the marble
-pavement.  Above them, laurel crowned, smile down in marble
-indifference the portrait busts of other Caesars now dead and gone to
-their account.  In the far corner is huddled the populace mingled
-with the lance-bearing soldiers.  They are sarcastically amused by
-Claudius's undignified election to the great Roman throne.  Tragedy
-and comedy are most felicitously fused.  Furthermore, wonderful
-though the details be, as they always are with Alma Tadema, in this
-case the accessories do not withdraw our attention for one moment
-from the human interest.  Marbles and draperies, metals and flowers,
-though so perfectly rendered, take their natural place in the
-composition without detracting from the central interest.
-
-And yet how exquisite in their archæological and æsthetic perfection
-are these accessories.  No wonder that in a picture from Alma
-Tadema's hand we look quite as much for the marbles, the hangings,
-the stuffs, the mosaics, the trees, and the flowers, as for the faces
-of his creations.  It would almost seem at times as though he had
-painted these accessories with even more care than he bestowed upon
-his men and women, as if they interested him more.  Indeed, where
-flowers are concerned Alma Tadema seems to give to them an inner
-life, a very physiognomy, his flowers are inimitable, both as
-suggestions and as realities.  Even in the choice made it is quite
-remarkable how there is always a peculiar fitness to the picture's
-theme.  Is there not, for example, to note but a few instances, a
-tragic impress about the poppy beds in his picture of _Tarquinius
-Superbus_?  Have not his red and pink oleanders a bloom and blush as
-fitting as that on the faces of the young lovers they shade?  Do not
-the cypresses and the stone pines in his _Improvisatore_ adumbrate
-all the solemn mournfulness of a Roman garden?  Is there not a
-sensual note in the prodigality of roses that inundates his
-_Heliogabalus_?  Are they not almost arch in his _Love's Missile_, in
-_Shy_, to name but a few of the many pictures in which trees and
-flowers figure as the very embodiment of the summer of life and
-nature.
-
-Indeed, so exquisitely, so superbly painted are these flowers that in
-some of Alma Tadema's minor pictures they actually assume the upper
-hand, though of course unconsciously to the painter, and become the
-protagonists in the composition.  There is one picture which he calls
-simply _Oleanders_, showing that he recognized himself how the
-flowers had impressed his imagination and gained precedence over the
-human beings with whom they were associated.  Tadema's flowers are
-very poems, and had he painted nothing but these he would have been a
-great artist.
-
-
-[Illustration: SPRING.]
-
-It was of course inevitable that when he chose _Spring_ as his theme
-the composition should be rich in the delineation of such blossoms.
-In this picture all the perfumed profusion of a southern May is
-summed up within the space of one little canvas.  A bevy of matrons,
-maidens and children precedes what was probably an ecclesiastical
-procession.  They wend their way through the marble-paved streets of
-Imperial Rome to some temple shrine, therein to celebrate the rites
-of joy due to the newly awakened season.  Flower-crowned are the fair
-human blossoms, flower-laden their garments, flower-filled the
-"offering-platters" they are about to lay on the altar of the god.
-The house-tops, those fair flat house-tops of Southern Italy, the
-spaces between the columns, the loggias and the porticoes, are
-crowded with eager spectators.  These, too, are flower-wreathed and
-flower-laden.  Joy-filled, spring-intoxicated, they rain down upon
-the gay procession beneath, posies and blossoms in glad and
-multi-coloured abundance.  Marble and flowers, sunshine and blue
-skies, all life's gladness is here embodied by a painter's loving
-brush.
-
-And how easy it all looks.  We feel as if the painter had just thrown
-all this lovely profusion with rapid hand upon the canvas.  But those
-who have the privilege of knowing Alma Tadema intimately and have
-watched the genesis of his pictures, watched them as they grow from
-under his brush, know how long and patiently he worked at this very
-canvas which gives an effect of spontaneity as though created _d'un
-seul jet_.  Again and again did he scrape down his work, erasing
-recklessly the most exquisite little figures, the most perfectly
-modelled heads, because they failed to satisfy the exigencies of the
-painter.  Hence in this finished form the _Spring_ represents the
-work of two or three pictures.  And this is constantly the case in
-Alma Tadema's paintings.  From each canvas has been erased some gem,
-under each picture is hidden some exquisite detail, painted over
-regardlessly by the artist; no matter how lovely it may be in itself,
-if it fails to fit into the _ensemble_ it is always destroyed.  Hence
-there is in his pictures no corner or space that is neglected or
-hastily blocked in.  All is as perfect as he knows how to make it,
-and I have heard him say, not rarely, that a little glimpse of sky,
-some little peep into the open, has given him as much labour as the
-entire picture.
-
-For this excessive scrupulousness, this difficulty to be satisfied
-with his own work Alma Tadema has often been criticised by critics.
-Quite unjustly so, surely.  Without this quality half of his power
-would be absent.  It is due to this great attention to detail, this
-ceaseless searching after ever greater perfection, that Alma Tadema
-has made for himself a style of his own.  Thus, for example, when he
-perceived that his colouring was too sombre, he reformed it by dint
-of diligence and care.  He has never deceived himself regarding his
-own limitations--for who has not limitations, even among the
-greatest?--nor has he ever juggled with his æsthetic conscience.
-
-An emancipation from the conventional codes that is almost Japanese
-is another feature of his work.  Alma Tadema does not hesitate to
-show us some of his personages as standing half outside the canvas,
-or cut through mid-body, or strangely placed in corners, or at the
-edge of the composition.  Neither does he deem it needful that the
-principal action, as laid down by academic canons, should be placed
-in the very centre of the picture.  It is this that gives the unusual
-note to many of his compositions, that was unusual in the days when
-they were still unknown, for since those days his work has been
-subjected to that imitation which the old proverb tells us is the
-sincerest form of flattery.
-
-
-[Illustration: AN AUDIENCE AT AGRIPPA's.]
-
-Sterner and more stately than _Spring_, indeed grand in its
-conception and execution, is _An Audience at Agrippa's_, in which a
-whole historic epoch is crystallized and rendered concrete.  Here
-fidelity to archæological truth has but enhanced the importance of
-the scene and helped to throw it into prominence; nor are the details
-unduly emphasized to the detriment of the whole.  In some respects
-this is one of Tadema's best conceived and most satisfactorily
-executed pictures.  From an atrium on a high level, down a broad
-flight of steps, majestically descends Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the
-greatest and mightiest burgher of his day.  He is clad in imperial
-red, and stands out marvellously against the white marble of the
-stairs.  His face is set with a look of stern determination that
-speaks of unbending will.  He is followed by a crowd of persons, some
-of whom are still bowing, though Agrippa has passed by.  Upon the
-landing at the bottom of the stairs--a marvel of blue mosaics with a
-tiger skin lying across it--there is a table.  On this stands a
-silver Mars and materials for writing, for the use of two scribes
-standing behind it.  Note the character in these heads, the
-close-cropped hair that denotes their servile rank, the cringing
-salute, each trying to outbid the other in humility of manner.  Just
-before these figures, at the foot of the staircase, stands the
-world-famed Vatican statue of Augustus Imperator, the only man whose
-supremacy proud Agrippa would acknowledge, his device being, "To obey
-in masterly fashion, but obedience to one person only."  Below this
-statue, where the staircase seems to turn at the landing, is another
-group.  These three suitors, father, son, and daughter, are about to
-render a gift to accompany their petition, for they know it is well
-to conciliate even the wealthy with gifts.  Behind the whole shimmers
-one of those wonderful effects of light and sky that Tadema rarely
-fails to introduce.  Like his Dutch ancestors, he is never happy
-unless he can get some peep into the open through a window or a
-terrace.  He welcomes any device by which is accomplished an outlet
-to the sky, producing thus an enhanced sense of space and atmosphere.
-
-The greater part of this picture was painted in 1875, when the artist
-spent the winter in Rome, being driven out of England by the wreck of
-his lovely house in Regent's Park.  I well remember those days in the
-Eternal City, and one little incident connected with this picture
-illustrates a delightful trait in Alma Tadema's character and his
-naive enjoyment of his own work.  He had finished the tiger skin
-which lies at the foot of the stairs, and in his delight over its
-successful achievement, he asked me in boyish glee, "Don't you see
-him wag his tail?"
-
-
-Even in the indoor picture called _An Earthly Paradise_ (see
-_frontispiece_), the sense of atmosphere and space is not absent.
-The tale is here told with direct simplicity, a young mother adoring
-her firstborn as mothers have done since time began.  The dress, the
-furniture, the surroundings are classic, the sentiment is of all
-times and all ages.
-
-
-_A Reading from Homer_ (see illustration, p. 16) reproduces some of
-Tadema's favourite devices,--a marble semicircular bench, a distant
-glimpse of tranquil sapphire seas, lustrous garments, and
-flower-wreathed characters.  With eager enthusiasm the reader seated
-on his chair recites from a roll of papyrus that rests upon his
-knees.  Of his four auditors only the woman, daffodil-wreathed, sits
-upon the marble exedra.  One hand rests upon a tambourine, beside
-which is flung a bunch of flowers.  The other holds that of a youth
-who sits upon the ground beside her.  His other hand touches a lyre
-idly, but without sound, his entire interest is centred upon the
-reciter, whose words he follows with the eyes of his soul and of his
-intellect.  Yet another youth lies prone upon the marble floor, his
-chin resting upon his hand.  He, too, gazes in entranced wonder as he
-listens to the immortal verses of the Hellenic bard.  On the left
-stands another figure, also flower-garlanded and wrapped in a toga.
-His face reveals that his, too, is a keen appreciation of the power
-of the words being recited.  Rarely has even Tadema's magic brush
-painted a more luminous work, so suggestive of sunlight, so truly
-transfigured and remote from life's grosser moments.  Here, too, his
-flesh treatment is above his own high average.  The modelling of the
-woman's figure and of the lover is especially fine.
-
-It seems incredible, and yet it is true, that this composition, a
-large one for Alma Tadema, with its five figures and innumerable
-accessories, was entirely painted in the brief space of two months.
-Still, though completed in so short a time, the preliminary studies,
-including an abandoned picture, which was to have been called
-_Plato_, filled eight months of close application.
-
-
-[Illustration: SAPPHO.]
-
-Not unlike in general treatment and in general purpose to the
-_Reading from Homer_ is the picture simply entitled _Sappho_.  In
-order to properly comprehend this work, however, some knowledge of
-the life story of the Greek poetess is required.  Not a few visitors
-to the Royal Academy, where the picture was exhibited, imagined, with
-pardonable inaccuracy, that the seated figure playing the lute, and
-which certainly, at first sight, seems the most prominent, filled the
-title role.  Instead, this is Alcaeus, the man who desired to gain
-the support of the mighty and gifted Sappho, for a political scheme
-of which he was the chief promoter.  But besides being a political
-rhymer, Alcaeus was also Sappho's lover, and as he is here rendered,
-it is the lover who is most emphasized.  Sappho herself sits behind a
-species of desk, on which rests the wreath, bound with ribands, that
-was the crown of poets.  She is robed in pale green and gray, and in
-accordance with tradition, her raven black hair is filleted with
-violets.  Beside her stands a young girl, her daughter, a sweetly
-graceful form, less lovely than the mother, but suggestive of
-maidenhood's enchantments.  The poetess is seated on the lowest tier
-of the marble triple-rowed exedra, on which, at a respectful
-distance, are also disposed some of the pupils of her school.  Dark,
-wide-branched fir trees spread their crowns above this bench.  We are
-made to realize that their trunks are rooted far below, there where
-the deep blue sea, shimmering in the background, laps the earth that
-supports this scene.  Through the branches is seen the sky, a sky of
-purest sapphire, a blue distinct from that of the tideless tranquil
-ocean, but no less glorious or intense.  Nowhere perhaps better than
-here has Tadema reproduced the effects of summer seas and skies in
-their brilliant ardour, their palpitating delicacy of hue and
-texture.  The very air that pervades the picture is hot and light,
-saturated and quivering with the quickening pulsation of a southern
-sun.
-
-
-The intimate life of the Roman women has often attracted Alma
-Tadema's brush.  We see this again and again in _Well-protected
-Slumber_, in _Quiet Pets_, in _Departure_, the scene suggested by
-Theocritus's fifteenth Idyll, in _The Bath_, in _Apodyterium_ (or
-women's disrobing-room), and it is also accentuated in the _Shrine of
-Venus_, a scene in a Roman hairdresser's shop.  This picture was
-exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1889, where it attracted
-considerable attention, not only because of the perfection of its
-painting, the beauty of marbles and metals and textiles, the richness
-of its soft, full colour, its yellows and blues, but because of the
-masterly skill with which the human figures were painted (see
-illustration, p. 32).
-
-Two beautiful young girls, one awaiting her turn to be _coiffée_,
-caressing the masses of her thick, dark, loosened hair, the other
-already dressed, lingering to gossip with her friend, are reclining
-on a marble bench.  These are so entirely absorbed in their own
-beauty that they pay but slight attention to the entrance of a tall,
-simply attired matron, who, glancing inquiringly in their direction,
-passes on to an inner apartment.  In sweeping by she has carelessly
-plucked one from a mass of blossoms heaped upon a coloured marble
-table in the outer shop, and her hand, holding the flower, falls
-heavily beside the warm white folds of her gown.  At the open lunette
-shop window, exposing to view coils and twists of hair, some
-attendants are distributing vases and lotions to the customers, whose
-heads appear above the marble balustrade, on which stands a deep blue
-vase, encrusted with exquisite enamel figures.  The figure of the
-attendant who is reaching down an alabaster pot is especially
-graceful and free in poise.
-
-Although the marble screen, surmounted by fluted columns, and the
-lunette window are sliced off at the top, the picture gives no
-impression of confinement.  This sense of space is increased by the
-rim of a marble basin in the immediate foreground, the reclining
-figures which lower the eye level, and the skilful introduction
-through the open window, above the heads of the passers-by, of the
-entrance columns and intricate façade of an adjoining building.  The
-triangle of blue sky and the blue glass vase standing out against the
-distant columns of the building across the square form one of Alma
-Tadema's many happy combinations.
-
-
-In some respects the most important picture painted by Alma Tadema of
-late years is called _The Coliseum_, which excited wondering praise
-for its masterly handling, its colour scheme, its archæological
-knowledge, when exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1896.  Attached to
-the title in the catalogue was this motto from Lord Byron's "Don
-Juan" that gave the keynote to that which the artist desired to
-express:
-
-    "And here the buzz of eager nations ran
-  In murmured pity, or loud-roared applause,
-  As man was slaughtered by his fellow man,
-  And wherefore slaughtered, wherefore, but because
-  Such were the bloody circus' genial laws,
-  And the Imperial pleasure.  Wherefore not?"
-
-Dominating the whole picture, and occupying more than half of its
-canvas, is the huge Flavian Amphitheatre colloquially known
-throughout the whole world as _the_ Coliseum.  Even in the title
-therefore in this case the inanimate object takes the first place,
-relegating to a secondary rank the human interest.  Very wonderfully
-does the artist convey to our eyes a sense of the gigantic bulk and
-height of the huge Amphitheatre, and with accurate archæological
-knowledge has he reconstructed its form upon his canvas.  Here are
-its two tiers of arcades, whose arches, we learn from the evidence of
-tradition, inscriptions and ancient coins, were filled, as in the
-painting, with groups of colossal white marble statues.  Above these
-arcades rose a series of pilasters, and above these again, supported
-on the topmost parapet, were stout poles that held the velarium or
-canvas awning which sheltered from the sun or rain the thousands of
-spectators gathered to witness the bloody deeds which took place in
-the arena below.  These supporting poles stand out distinct against
-the glowing sky, a sky always introduced if possible by Alma Tadema.
-The hour chosen is late afternoon, when from out the Amphitheatre
-pour the thousands who have lately thronged the tiers upon tiers of
-seats that surrounded the arena, high functionaries and proletariat,
-tender-born ladies and women of the market-place, all equally eager
-to witness the orgies of blood that were here enacted.  Outside the
-broad walk that encircled the Amphitheatre stood the famous Baths of
-Titus, second only in magnificence to the Coliseum itself.  Alma
-Tadema has imagined for it a balcony of white marble, raised high
-above the road.  On its parapet stand tall wide-mouthed sculptured
-vases, connected together with thick festoons of yellow daffodils
-proving that the season of the year is Alma Tadema's favourite one of
-early spring.  A nude bronze statue of a nymph wreathing her tresses,
-in accordance with the usages of the Baths, crowns the parapet of the
-balcony.  Around her feet too, are twined the wreaths of yellow
-flowers that give such a sunny note to the whole scheme of colour.
-Two ladies and a child have taken up their station on this festively
-decorated parapet, evidently come thither to witness some spectacle
-of quite unusual importance that has called to the arena not only the
-populace, but even the Consul himself, who, preceded by his clients,
-and attended by his lictors, is seen issuing from the main exit of
-the Coliseum, which was almost in front of the Baths.  To keep the
-way clear for the grandees, some guards are roughly pushing back the
-dense crowd that is packed on either side of the roadway.  Yet
-another crowd is issuing from the side door of the Coliseum.  This
-mob is chiefly composed of plebs, though among them are mingled
-palanquin bearers plying for hire.  Yet further off again is seen the
-Arch of Constantine and the famous goal known as the Meta Sudans.
-
-[Illustration: THE COLISEUM.]
-
-It is not quite evident what it is that chiefly interests these lady
-spectators.  We are told that the dark-haired and elder of the two is
-the little girl's mother.  For safety's sake she plucks at the
-child's gown for fear the little one in her excitement should fall
-over the low parapet.  The younger lady is more eager in her
-interest.  She, who is supposed to be the child's governess, has
-evidently recognized some one, friend or lover, in the crowd
-immediately below to whom the child is excitedly pointing.  The
-"Athenæum," when describing this picture on its first exhibition,
-wrote concerning it:
-
-"It would be difficult to do justice to the breadth, brilliance and
-homogeneity (in spite of its innumerable details) of this splendid
-picture.  The painting of the minutest ornaments, the folds of the
-ladies' garments, even the huge festoons we have referred to, and the
-delicate sculptor's work of the vases and mouldings on the balcony
-are equally noteworthy.  Even more to be admired are the faces, of
-which that of the maiden in blue is undoubtedly the sweetest and
-freshest of all Mr. Alma Tadema's imaginings.  Her companion (the
-more stately matron) who wears a diadem of silver in her black hair,
-illustrates a pure Greek type of which the painter has given us
-several examples, but none so fine as this one, which is very
-skilfully relieved against the peacock fan of gorgeous colours which
-she holds in her hand.  It is easy to imagine that in her noble
-spirit some thought of the victims of the Amphitheatre arose, which
-explains the painter's intention in choosing the motto of the
-Coliseum."
-
-The picture is certainly in every respect worthy of Alma Tadema's
-high reputation and is a perfect example of his style, a brilliant
-work, true and complete in every touch.
-
-
-
-
-  THE PRINCIPAL PICTURES
-
-  BY
-
-  SIR LAWRENCE ALMA TADEMA
-
-  WITH THE NAMES OF THEIR OWNERS AS
-  FAR AS CAN BE ASCERTAINED
-
-
-  Clotilde at the Tomb of Her Grandchildren.  _M. Jules Verspreeuwen._
-  Education of the Children of Clovis.  _H.M. King of the Belgians._
-  Venantius.  _A. G. Hill, Esq._
-  Fortunatus and Radegonda.  _A. G. Hill, Esq._
-  Gonthran Bose.  _A. G. Hill, Esq._
-  Egyptians Three Thousand Years Ago.  _J. Dewhurst, Esq._
-  The Chess-players.  _Sir Henry Thompson._
-  The Egyptian at His Doorway.  _Sir Henry Thompson._
-  The Mummy.  _John Foster, Esq._
-  Agrippina with the Ashes of Germanicus.  _N. G. Clayton, Esq._
-  A Roman Family.  _John Pender, Esq._
-  Lesbia.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  Entrance to a Roman Theatre.  _John Straker, Esq._
-  Roman Dance.  _John Straker, Esq._
-  The Discourse.  _Henry Mason, Esq._
-  Glaucus and Nydia.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  Claudius.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  Tarquinius Superbus.  _Sir Henry Thompson._
-  The Visit to the Studio.  _M. X. Puttermans Bonnefoy._
-  Phidias and the Elgin Marbles.  _D. Price, Esq._
-  The Siesta.  _M. Gambart._ (?)
-  A Roman Amateur.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  The Convalescent.  _Hon. W. F. D. Smith, M.P._
-  Confidences.  _F. W. Cosens, Esq._
-  The Pyrrhic Dance.  _C. Gassiot, Esq._
-  The Chamberlain of Sesostris.  _H. Hilton Phillipson, Esq._
-  A Visit.  _W. Houldsworth, Esq._
-  In the Peristyle.  _C. R. Fenwick, Esq._
-  The Silver Statue.  The Marquis de Santurce.
-  A Soldier of Marathon.  _Alfred Harris, Esq._
-  Exedra.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  The Wineshop.  _R. Christy, Esq._
-  Tibullus at Delia's.  _M. Gambart._ (?)
-  A Juggler.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  The First Whisper.  _James Hall, Esq._
-  The Vintage Festival.  _Baron Schroeder._
-  Hush.  _Mariano de Murrieta, Esq._
-  Une Fete Intime.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  The Widow.  _M. Gambart._ (?)
-  The Improvisatore.  _Alfred Harris, Esq._
-  The Death of the First-born.  _Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema._
-  The Nurse.  _Baron Schroeder._
-  Fishing.  _Baron Schroeder._
-  The Siesta.  _W. Lee, Esq._
-  Between Hope and Fear.  _T. G. Sandeman, Esq._
-  After the Dance.  _H. F. Makins, Esq._
-  At Lesbia's.  _W. J. Newall, Esq._
-  Cherry Blossom.  _Wilberforce Bryant, Esq._
-  Hide and Seek.  _John Fielden, Esq._
-  Pleading.  _C. Gassiot, Esq._
-  The Kitchen Garden.  _W. Lee, Esq._
-  The Bath.  _Baron Schroeder._
-  Pandora.  _Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours._
-  The Garland Seller.  _A. D. Halford, Esq._
-  Balneatrix.  _H. F. Morton, Esq._
-  A Roman Artist.  _H. J. Carr, Esq._
-  A Garden Altar.  _A. Macdonald, Esq._
-  The First Reproach.  _H. Hilton Phillipson, Esq._
-  The Last Roses.  _Sir James Joicey, Bart. M.P._
-  On the Steps of the Capitol.  _Baron Schroeder._
-  The Sculptor.  _John Foster, Esq._
-  Grecian Wine.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  Cleopatra.  _Sir Henry Thompson._
-  The Question.  _D. Price, Esq._
-  Fregonda at the Death-bed of Praetextatus.  _D. Price, Esq._
-  Water Pets.  _W. Lee, Esq._
-  The Siesta.  _W. Lee, Esq._
-  The Architect.  _John Foster, Esq._
-  A Sculpture Gallery.  _M. Gambart._ (?)
-  An Audience at Agrippa's.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  After the Audience.  _Henry Mason, Esq._
-  A Picture Gallery.  _M. Gambart._ (?)
-  Wine.  _W. Lee, Esq._
-  In the Time of Constantine.  _J. W. Knight, Esq._
-  A Hearty Welcome.  _Sir Henry Thompson._
-  A Sculptor's Model.  _Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Collier._
-  In the Temple.  _Angus Holden, Esq., J.P._
-  Play.  _J. G. Sandeman, Esq._
-  A Well-Protected Slumber.  _J. S. Forbes, Esq._
-  Antistius Labeon.  _The Marquis de Santurce._
-  Love's Missile.  _John Fielden, Esq._
-  Cherry Blossom.  _Wilberforce Bryant, Esq._
-  A Torch Dance.  _John Paton, Esq._
-  Ave Caesar!  Ió Saturnalia.  _J. Dyson Perrins, Esq._
-  Quiet Pets.  _M. Verstolk Volekin._
-  Reflections.  _Lord Battersea._
-  A Harvest Festival.  _James Barrow, Esq._
-  A Pastoral.  _Wakefield Christy, Esq._
-  An Audience.  _G. H. Boughton, Esq., A.R.A._
-  The Tepidarium.  _Sharpley Bainbridge, Esq._
-  Cleopatra.  _-- Hawk, Esq._
-  Young Affections.  _Henry Joachim, Esq._
-  Sappho.  _M. Coquelin._
-  Repose.  _M. Coquelin._
-  Oleanders.
-  On the Way to the Temple.
-  Shy.
-  Who Is It?
-  Hadrian Visiting a British Pottery.
-  Expectations.
-  A Reading from Homer.
-  An Apodyterium.
-  Not at Home.
-  Down to the River.
-  Pomona's Festival,
-  Departure.
-  The Seasons.
-  The Silent Counsellor.
-  A Bacchante.
-  At the Shrine of Venus.
-  Heliogabalus.
-  The Women of Amphissa.
-  Spring.  _Herr Robert Mendelssohn._
-  The Benediction.
-  Past and Present Generations.
-  Love's Jewelled Fetter.  _Geo. McCulloch, Esq._
-  Fortune's Favourite.  _Herr Robert Mendelssohn._
-  Unwelcome Confidence.  _America._
-  A Coign of Vantage.  _America._
-  Whispering Noon.  _Sir Samuel Montagu._
-  The Coliseum.  _America._
-  A Difference of Opinion.  _America._
-  "Nobody asked you, Sir, she said" (water colour).  _Australia._
-  Watching.  "Her eyes are with her thoughts and
-  they are far away."  _America._
-  Wandering Thoughts.  _America._
-  Melody.  _America._
-  Roses, Love's Delight.  _The Czar of Russia._
-  The Conversion of Paula.  _America._
-  Hero.  _America._
-  A Listener.  _The Tate Gallery._
-  Thermae Antoninae.  _America._
-  Goldfish.  _Sir Ernest Cassell._
-  Vain Courtship.  _Sir Ernest Cassell._
-  "Under the roof of Blue Ionian Weather."  _Sir Ernest Cassell._
-  "The year's at the Spring
-  . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-  All's well with the world."  _Alfred de Rothschild, Esq._
-
-
-
-
-  THE PRINCIPAL PORTRAITS
-  BY
-  SIR LAWRENCE ALMA TADEMA.
-
-
-  Dr. and Mrs. Hueffer.
-  Dr. W. Epps.
-  Prof. G. B. Amendola.
-  L. Lowenstam, Esq.
-  My Youngest Daughter.
-  My Children.
-  Herr Henschel.
-  Dr. and Mrs. Semon.
-  Herr Hans Richter.
-  Ludwig Barnay as Mark Antony.
-  Sir Henry Thompson.
-  Herbert Thompson, Esq.
-  Mrs. Rowland Hill and Children.
-  George Simonds and Family.
-  Mrs. Marcus Stone.
-  A Family Group.
-  Miss Enid Ford.
-  Maurice Sons.
-  Portrait of Himself for Uffizi.
-  Lady Waterlow.
-  Miss Tina Mavis.
-  Mrs. George Lewis and Miss Elizabeth Lewis.
-  Mrs. George Armour of Princetown.
-  Prof. George Aitchison, R.A.
-  Max Waechter.
-
-
-
-  CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
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