Explore: Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

(1836 - 1912)

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was born in The Netherlands. He was diagnosed with consumption at 15 and permitted to spend his final days painting. However, at 16 he enrolled at the Academy of Art, Antwerp, and later entered the studio of an archaeology professor. In 1859 he joined the studio of artist Henri Leys. He won a gold medal at the Paris Salon (1864). Alma-Tadema’s works are mainly Roman genre or historical scenes and he received two commissions for large numbers of such works from dealer E. Gambart. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1869 and moved to London in 1870. He was later knighted (1899) and received the Order of Merit (1905). In 1912 he travelled to Germany to be treated for ulceration of the stomach, where he died aged 76.