This calendar week I ’m excited to present a two - part ' experience Art Again ' feature film on Sir Lawrence Alma - Tadema , one of the most notable and most highly pay up artists of the nineteenth hundred . Since today is his natal day , we ’ll celebrate it with his 1893 painting , " Unconscious Rivals,“ and six fascinating factoids about the man himself . On Thursday , we ’ll take a face at his 1888 painting , " The Roses of Heliogabalus,“ accompanied by factoids about Heliogabalus .
1 . The creative person was bear in 1836 in the Netherlands as just Laurens Tadema . Years later , he change his first name Lawrence to be more English , and add up Alma to his last name so he would look first ( or at least at the commencement ) in exhibition catalogues .
2 . Originally , Tadema was supposed to become a lawyer , although he had received drawing lessons from a unseasoned historic period . After a forcible and genial breakdown at age 15 , he was name as consumptive , with only a forgetful time to live . He spent his days drawing and painting , eventually retrieve his health , pursuing a life history as an artist , and living to the good former age of 76 .
3 . Tadema was n’t always know as the " marbelous painter" for his naturalistic marble texture . His mentor in 1861 , Baron Jan Leys , knock the marble in Tadema ’s first exhibited work , " The Education of the Children of Clovis,“ comparing it to cheese . A perfectionist , Tadema took the literary criticism to affection and worked to improve his technique , becoming the world-class puma of marble .
4 . At the crook - of - the - century , Tadema reave into theater of operations design ( admit costumes ) and piece of furniture design ( often Pompeian- and Egyptian - exhort ) . Often , he incorporated furniture of his design into his picture ; the vesture on some of the distaff subjects is also likely to have been of his own design .
5 . Although he enjoyed swell wealth and popularity during the Victorian Era , Tadema begin to pass out of favor as it drew to a close , and his reputation only declined after his death . His paintings , which in the beginning sell for upwards of £5000 , became almost impossible to betray . He was even declared " the worst painter of the 19th century . “ Not until an auction sale of his work ( a collection owned by Allen Funt , the creator and legion of " Candid Camera" ) at Sotheby ’s in 1973 did he start to be appreciated again .
6 . Tadema meticulously studied and researched ancient Greece and Rome , particularly popish computer architecture . Hollywood conductor have value his attention to detail ; his picture have been used as references and estimate forIntolerance(1916),Ben Hur(1926),Cleopatra(1934 ) , andGladiator(2000 ) . ForThe Ten Commandments , Cecil B. deMille would present prints of Tadema ’s paintings to his set designers as lesson of the smell he wanted to achieve .
A big version of the artwork is availablehere .
' finger Art Again ' look every Tuesday and Thursday .
