Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A. (1905) (14783265825)

Identifier: sirlawrencealmat00stan (find matches)
Title: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A.
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Standing, Percy Cross, 1870-1931
Subjects: Alma-Tadema, Lawrence, 1836-1912
Publisher: London, Paris, New York, Melbourne, Cassell and Company, limited
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute



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riff prevented the inclusion of a number ofimportant paintings which had been sold inthat country ; but it was thoroughly represent-ative of his art. Not the least interesting orattractive exhibit was the portrait of the artistpainted by himself at the age of sixteen (in1852), the dominant characteristics of whichare a vigour and an earnestness filled with thepromise of fulfilment. The Question wasalso there. In a word, visitors to the galleryhad an opportunity of appraising both theearliest and the latest works of the artist. A scholarly critic of Blackwoods, writingwhile Alma-Tademas pictures were being ex-hibited at the Grosvenor, instituted a compari-son between the artists Roman and Egyptianforms—a comparison somewhat unfavourableto the latter. This critic, if acclaiming TheDeath of the First-born as one of thegreatest works of the age that produced it,finds others of the masters subjects treatingof old Nilus of rather unequal merit. Thus,he is unkind enough to suggest that The
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THE TORCH-DANCE. By Permission of Messrs. L. H. Lefeura & Son,the Owners of the Copyright. THE GROSVENOR EXHIBITION. 73 Juggler is suggestive of a mummy, and thatin the case of Cleopatra the onlooker is not spellbound under her beauty, but withcold curiosity counts up the details, admiresaccessories, and stands wonderstruck at thepainters cleverness and sleight of hand. Inthe next paragraph it is admitted that Alma-Tadema occupies a high place amongst thefew really great painters of Europe. Far less original is this critic of Blackwoodwhen he makes the supreme discovery that, had the whole of Europe been searched, twostronger opposites could not have beendiscovered than Dante Rossetti and Alma-Tadema. Has anybody ever questioned it ?Surely there could be no conceivably greatercontrasts, in every way of art and life, thanthe ill-starred, splendid Italian Rossetti and thebrilliant, optimistic Frieslander Alma-Tadema ?Of the latter it is conceded that if he is notprecisely a poet, he