Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, , . and the whole conveys animpression of consummate ease on the partof the master who limned it. That such is notthe case we know, Alma-Tadema being his ownmost critical and disdainful critic. One couldimagine him spending long, sleepless nights inwrestling with the problem of the moment,the picture that obstinately refuses to come right. This Spring, for example,is the result of innumerable alterations, era-sures, seemingly reckless scrapings down ofcanvas. And yet it comes out, in the fulnessof time, a finished thing of great beauty andexquisite fineness.
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, , . and the whole conveys animpression of consummate ease on the partof the master who limned it. That such is notthe case we know, Alma-Tadema being his ownmost critical and disdainful critic. One couldimagine him spending long, sleepless nights inwrestling with the problem of the moment,the picture that obstinately refuses to come right. This Spring, for example,is the result of innumerable alterations, era-sures, seemingly reckless scrapings down ofcanvas. And yet it comes out, in the fulnessof time, a finished thing of great beauty andexquisite fineness. But we know that thisdesired end has not been attained withoutinfinite labour and the loving care of a motherfor her offspring. The artist might well havesaid with Swinburne : For the end is hard to reach. The Coliseum was exhibited in theAcademy of 1896, and to the announcementof it in the catalogue were appended thesewell-known lines from Byrons Don Juan : And here the buzz of eager nations ranIn murmurd pity or loud-roared applause. CO CO =2D I I O < O J< CO 5: O J | 1- g | O S » LU £ | Q {O < 5 I PICTURES OF THE NINETIES. 101 As man was slaughtered by his fellow-man. And wherefore slaughtered ? Wherefore, but becauseSuch were the bloody circus genial laws, And the Imperial pleasure. Wherefore not ? And it was of this painting that the criticof the Athenceum wrote at the time : Itwould be difficult to do justice to the breadth,brilliance, and homogeneity—in spite of itsinnumerable details—of this splendid painting of the minutest ornaments, thefolds of the ladies garments, even the hugefestoons . . and the delicate sculptors workof the vases and mouldings on the balcony,are equally noteworthy. Even more to beadmired are the faces, of which that of themaiden in blue is undoubtedly the sweetestand freshest of all Mr. Alma-Tademas im-aginings. Her companion—the more statelylady, the mother of the child—who wears adiadem of silver in her black hair
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondonparisnewyork
