[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.