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Lawrence Alma TademaStock informationGeneral Fields
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DescriptionSir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912), was one of the finest and most distinctive of the Victorian painters. Dutch-born, he moved to London in 1870 and became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. In this original study, Rosemary Barrow presents an absorbing and often amusing portrait of an exuberant personality who carved out a brilliant career for himself at the heart of London's artistic and cultural elite. But above all she subjects the paintings to a fresh scrutiny, and reveals that Alma-Tadema, a knowledgeable student of antiquity, repeatedly used literary and archaeological allusions in his paintings to play a game of interpretation with his viewers. Time and again the seeming innocence of the scenes he depicts is subverted by a mischievously placed inscription or statue, suggesting to the initiated a darker and usually risque meaning. Neglected after his death, Alma-Tadema's paintings are once again admired for their beauty and their remarkable mastery of light, colour and texture. Reviews' ... scholarly and informative book ...' Times Literary Supplement 'This book, like the paintings themselves, is a joy of immaculate and comprehensive research with a lavish attention to detail.' Arts Opinion '... a fresh and sympathetic appraisal of this ... artist.' Daily Telegraph Author descriptionRosemary J Barrow is a Lecturer in the School of Humanities, King's College, London, and has lectured and published widely on Alma-Tadema. Table of contentsPart I 1836-70 - Youth, art training, early career: Holland, Belgium, Merovingian Gaul; Egypt; Pompeii; Greece and Rome. Part II Establishment and success: a Dutch painter in London; into the Academy; landscapes, portraits, watercolours; the artist at home. Part III Final honours and the end of a career: views of antiquity; the theatre; the final years; Alma-Tadema in retrospect. |