(b Dronrijp, Friesland, 8 Jan 1836; d Wiesbaden, 28 June 1912). Painter and designer of Dutch birth. The son of a notary, Alma-Tadema demonstrated an early artistic ability. In 1852 he entered the Antwerp Academy, where he studied under Gustaf, Baron Wappers, and Nicaise de Keyser. An important influence at this time was Louis De Taye, Professor of Archaeology at the academy and a practising artist. Alma-Tadema lived and worked with De Taye from 1857 to 1859 and was encouraged by him to depict subjects from the early history of France and Belgium. This taste for historical themes increased when Alma-Tadema entered Baron Henri Leys’s studio in 1859 and began assisting him with his monumental frescoes for the Antwerp Town Hall. While in Leys’s studio, Alma-Tadema produced several major paintings, for example the Education of the Children of Clovis (1861; ex-Sir John Pender priv. col., see Zimmern, p. 3) and Venantius Fortunatus Reading his Poems to Radagonda (1862; Dordrecht, Dordrechts Mus.), which are characterized by their obscure Merovingian subject-matter, rather sombre colouring and close attention to detail.

Part of the Alma-Tadema family

• Alma-Tadema, Lawrence
  • History painting, §II, 3: Later 19th century
  • Nude, §4: The modern period, after 1800
  • collaboration
    • Theatre, §III, 4(i)(b): Western world: 19th-century stage design and costume
  • dealers
    • Gambart, Ernest
  • groups and movements
    • Japonisme, §1: Origins and diffusion
    • Orientalism, §2(iii): Harems and slave and street markets
  • patrons and collectors
    • Handley-Read
    • Proby, William
    • Tate, Henry
  • personal collection
    • Musical instruments, §1(ii)(a): Western, 16th century to mid-20th: Keyboard instruments
  • pupils
    • Alma-Tadema: (2) Laura Alma-Tadema
  • reproductive prints by others
    • Blanchard, Auguste, III
    • Löwenstam, Leopold
  • studio
    • Studio, §II, 3: History and development, c 1800–c 1900
  • teachers
    • Wappers, Gustaf
  • works
    • Erotic art, §I, 2(iii): Western world, c 1700–c 1900
    • Frame, §IV, 10: Britain: Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic Movement
    • Kitsch
    • Mythological painting and sculpture, §6: Romanticism, Symbolism and modern art, c 1800 and after
    • Netherlands, the, §III, 6(i): Painting and graphic arts, c 1800–c 1850