A Greek Library.
Homer and His Writings.
A Description of “A Reading from Homer.”
The Artist.
The story of the artist. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, of Dutch parentage, was born in the little village of Dronrijp near Leewarden, the Netherlands, in the year 1836. When he was very young his father died, leaving his mother with a large family and small means, and it was decided from the first that Alma-Tadema must learn a good trade or profession. His progress at school caused his mother much anxiety, for the boy cared for nothing except Roman history, which he began to study by himself. Having secured some quaint old coins in the neighborhood, he spent much of his time copying the heads of the emperors on the coins.
He soon began to show remarkable talent for painting. A portrait which he painted of his sister was exhibited when he was only fifteen years old. But his mother wished him to become a lawyer, because she felt it would bring the best financial returns. He tried to please her, but a serious illness was the result. When the doctor advised the mother to let him become an artist she gave her consent, and it is said the boy recovered with astonishing rapidity.
He studied at Antwerp many years, winning such success that he sent for his mother and sister to come to live with him. Then he began to make a special study of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. After his marriage to an English lady he moved to London, where he lived the rest of his life.
His love for marble and the polished surfaces of bronze, gold, and other metals is clearly shown in most of his pictures. Even his portraits usually represent the sitter as glancing in a mirror or in some way reflected in it.
Perhaps no other artist has ever made so much use of flowers in his pictures. The flowers seem to add the one touch of bright color which beautifies the whole picture.
Alma-Tadema gives us a clear understanding of the home life of the Greeks and Romans, and so has become known as the “Painter of the Ancients.”