Lawrence Alma-Tadema

A cabinet card portrait of the Dutch-born English painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912), who in 1870 settled in Britain. He painted romantic, idealized figures from Greek, Roman and Egyptian life in a distinctive style. His highly detailed, illusionistic paintings were immensely popular and often afforded the enjoyment of nudity. Occasionally, his compositions are daringly original and are said to have influenced early Hollywood directors. All his work attempts archaeological accuracy, but there is an undeniable bathos in his smaller pictures of classical domestic bliss, painted in his magnificent Roman villa in St John's Wood.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Company.