44 Facts About Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's father had three sons from a previous marriage.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's father died when Lourens was four, leaving his mother with five children: Lourens, his sister, and three boys from his father's first marriage.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was encouraged to depict historical accuracy in his paintings, a trait for which the artist became known.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema left Taeye's studio in November 1858 returning to Leeuwarden before settling in Antwerp, where he began working with the painter Baron Jan August Hendrik Leys, whose studio was one of the most highly regarded in Belgium.

Under his guidance Lawrence Alma-Tadema painted his first major work: The Education of the children of Clovis.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected, he was critical of the treatment of marble, which he compared to cheese.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema collaborated with Hendrik Leys on the series of wall paintings in the Leys Hall on the second floor of Antwerp City Hall, which depict significant moments in the history of The Netherlands.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema took this criticism very seriously, and it led him to improve his technique and to become the world's foremost painter of marble and variegated granite.

In 1862 Lawrence Alma-Tadema left Leys's studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject European artist.

Nothing is known of their meeting and little of Pauline herself, as Lawrence Alma-Tadema never spoke about her after her death in 1869.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's image appears in a number of oils, though he painted her portrait only three times, the most notable appearing in My studio.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema would consult Discanno a number of times before Discanno's death in 1907 to ensure his paintings of antiquity would reflect the lifestyle of residents of the Greco-Roman world accurately.

The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870 encouraged Lawrence Alma-Tadema to leave the continent and move to London.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema incorporated Alma into his surname so that he appeared at the beginning of exhibition catalogues, under "A" rather than under "T".

Lawrence Alma-Tadema did not actually hyphenate his last name, but it was done by others and this has since become the convention.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema became one of the most famous and highly paid artists of his time, acknowledged and rewarded.

In 1872 Lawrence Alma-Tadema organised his paintings into an identification system by including an opus number under his signature and assigning his earlier pictures numbers as well.

On 19 June 1879, Lawrence Alma-Tadema was made a Royal Academician, his most personally important award.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema spent a significant amount of time studying the site, going there daily.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was childlike in his practical jokes and in his sudden bursts of bad temper, which could as suddenly subside into an engaging smile.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema had most of the characteristics of a child, coupled with the traits of a consummate professional.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was an excellent businessman, and one of the wealthiest artists of the nineteenth century.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was as firm in money matters as he was with the quality of his work.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's output decreased with time, partly on account of health, but because of his obsession with decorating his new home, to which he moved in 1883.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema assisted with the St Louis World's Fair of 1904 where he was well represented and received.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema spread his artistic boundaries and began to design furniture, often modelled after Pompeian or Egyptian motifs, illustrations, textiles, and frame making.

Between 1903 and his death, Lawrence Alma-Tadema painted less but still produced ambitious paintings such as The Finding of Moses.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema died there on 28 June 1912 at the age of seventy-six.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema read many books and took many images from them.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy, which he used to achieve the most precise accuracy in the detail of his compositions.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema worked assiduously to make the most of his paintings, often repeatedly reworking parts of paintings before he found them satisfactory to his own high standards.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was sensitive to every detail and architectural line of his paintings, as well as the settings he was depicting.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's work has been linked with that of European Symbolist painters.

They, like Lawrence Alma-Tadema, employ coded imagery to convey meaning in their paintings.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was considered one of the most popular Victorian painters.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was among the most financially successful painters of the Victorian era, though never matching Edwin Henry Landseer.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema had been declared "the worst painter of the 19th century" by John Ruskin, and one critic even remarked that his paintings were "about worthy enough to adorn bourbon boxes".

Only since the 1960s has Lawrence Alma-Tadema's work been re-evaluated for its importance within the nineteenth century, and more specifically, within the evolution of English art.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema is regarded as one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century whose works demonstrate the care and exactitude of an era mesmerised by trying to visualise the past, some of which was being recovered through archaeological research.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's paintings were the inspiration for the design of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham holds several archive collections relating to Lawrence Alma-Tadema, including letters, artwork and photography.