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Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, RA, OM - The Blind Beggar - Walters 372761
Summary
Bathed in sunlight, an attractive young woman in Dutch country dress leans from an open window in one corner of a vine-covered cottage. She reaches out to drop coins in the hat of a young man outiside her window, who is wearing a patched and dirty tunic. He is soliciting charity on behalf of an elderly woman, who waits beside him in a wheeled, hand-drawn conveyance. A glimpse of a distant landscape is visible over the brick wall to the right. Although Alma-Tadema was only 20 when he painted this scene, he already shows in it the narrative skills that will bring him such success with his later re-creations of life in Greek and Roman antiquity. This genre scene was the artist's first major commission.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836– 1912) is one of the most highly renowned romantic artists of late 19th century Britain. He was born in the Netherlands as Laurens Tadema, to the family of the town notary. Later, as he tried to make his niche in the art world, he changed the spelling of his first name to the more English “Lawrence,” and included his middle name “Alma” as part of his surname, so he would be listed among the “A’s” in exhibition catalogs.
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