Alma-Tadema, Lawrence (1836–1912)

Dutch artist who worked in England from 1870. He painted romantic, idealized scenes from ancient Greek, Roman, and Egyptian life, which combined Victorian sentiment with detailed historical accuracy.

Alma‐Tadema was born in Dronryp, Holland. He studied painting first at the Antwerp academy, and later under the Dutch historical painter Baron Hendrik Leys (1815–1869). He followed Leys in devoting himself to the reconstruction of the past, painting chiefly classical subjects such as Phidias at Work on the Parthenon (1869; Tate Gallery) and the Pyrrhic Dance (1869; Guildhall, London). He designed his own house in St John's Wood, London, as a Pompeian villa.

He was knighted in 1899.