Interview: Our first podcast was an interview with Vern Swanson, Phd, Director of the Springville Museum on the subject of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912).

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema A Reading From Homer 1885 Oil on canvas 35 7/8 x 72 1/4 inches (91.4 x 183.8 cm) Private Collection

Spring

Silver Favorites, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1903. This is an example of one of Alma-Tadema's "bright and sunny" paintings, and a good example of his painting of marble as well.

Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1868

Caracalla and Geta, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1909

The Drawing Room at Townshend House, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1885

An Oleander, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1882. This is an example of the red walls of Pompei and of Alma-Tadema's studio.

This is Our Corner or Laurense and Anna Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1873

The Death of Hippolytus, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1860. An example of Alma-Tadema's early paintings with "tragic" themes.

Portrait of the Singer George Henschel, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1879

Egyptian Juggler, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1870

The Finding of Moses, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1904.

"The Finding of Moses, a large, wonderful, incomprehensibly beautiful painting by Tadema, that says everything you could ever want to say...stone, flesh, water, light flowers, everything. The painting in the early 1960's was put up for sale and nobody would buy it. Finally someone bought it $200 and someone came in and asked 'What is that painting going in your alley?' So they went out and found that the people who had bought the painting had removed it from the frame and left the painting in the alley. So they sold it again to a restaurant for nothing. That painting came up for auction at Christie's in New York 5 or 6 years ago and sold for well over a million dollars and if it came up today it would sell for 4 or 5 million."

A Difference of Opinion, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1896

Vern also mentioned Alma-Tadema's friendship with the excellent Victorian artist James Jacques Joseph Tissot starting in their early days as students.

posted by Brian Yoder at 11:11 PM