Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, , . ES. ^V^OU do not know how difficult it is to paint1 pictures, remarked Alma-Tadema, witha pathetic intonation, to a friend. This wasuttered in reference to the difficulty he ex-perienced—a difficulty, indeed, by no meansunusual with him—in bringing to a fittingcompletion his second study from the life ofCleopatra. He finished this picture nofewer than four or five times, and was moreand more dissatisfied. He painted as manyas four or five different backgrounds to itbefore hitting upon one which partially satis-fied him. (The subject is the noble one ofAnt
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, , . ES. ^V^OU do not know how difficult it is to paint1 pictures, remarked Alma-Tadema, witha pathetic intonation, to a friend. This wasuttered in reference to the difficulty he ex-perienced—a difficulty, indeed, by no meansunusual with him—in bringing to a fittingcompletion his second study from the life ofCleopatra. He finished this picture nofewer than four or five times, and was moreand more dissatisfied. He painted as manyas four or five different backgrounds to itbefore hitting upon one which partially satis-fied him. (The subject is the noble one ofAntony abandoning his fleet to join the Empressas she reclines in her flower-decked galley.)Yet he had planned this picture in a mannerthat should seem to admit of no alteration,no dissatisfaction. His calculations, his dimen-sions, are unerring. How do I manage tohit the right height of that figure seated inthe chariot on the hill ? said he to CosmoMonkhouse when speaking of another painting. It is because I know that the road there. ai a. » si§ ;> O a ? PICTURES OF THE NINETIES. 99 is exactly thirty feet below the level of themosaic pavement of the hall in the foreground. Pictures came thick and fast from his brushin the early nineties. To 1889 belong SilentGreeting (now in the Tate Gallery) and ADedication to Bacchus. Of the latter subjectAlma-Tadema painted a large and a small study,the larger one being the property of BaronSchroeder and the smaller having been soldat Christies for a large sum in 1903. In1890 came the Frigidarium (painted forSir Max Waechter), Love in Idleness/ and An Earthly Paradise. In 1891 that delight-ful picture A Kiss —a lady stooping tokiss a little child, in a background of sea andsky—was also painted for Sir M. same year witnessed the artists strikingportrait of Paderewski. These varied sub-jects were rapidly followed by Courtship and Comparisons (1892), A Corner of MyStudio (1893) (painted for the late LordLeighton, and now
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondonparisnewyork
