Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, born Lourens Alma Tadema in Dronryp in the Netherlands in 1836, was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom and died in 1912. He trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium, settled in London in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A painter of mostly classical subjects, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea and sky. One of the most popular Victorian painters, he was admired in his lifetime for his draftsmanship and accurate depictions of classical antiquity, and his work fell out of fashion after his death.