Anna Alma-Tadema

Millon & Associes, Paris, 31st March 2010, lot 11

Chicago, Royal Commission for the Chicago Exhibition, British Fine Art Section, (details untraced).

Anna Alma-Tadema was the second daughter of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, the highly successful Victorian painter of resplendent classical scenes, and his first wife Pauline Dumoulin, who died when Anna was two years old. Her step-mother was Laura Alma-Tadema, also a respected artist.

Anna was herself an accomplished artist, painting portraits, landscapes and flowers. She exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1885 and at the Paris Salon where she obtained a medal in 1889. A highly intricate watercolour painted by her while still a teenager, The Drawing Room, Townshend House, 10th September 1885 (Royal Academy), shows a remarkable talent for detail, texture and jewel-like colouring. The work depicts one of a suite of ornate drawing rooms at her father's studio-house in Regent's Park, which had a range of eclectic interiors from traditional Dutch to Egyptian, Ancient Greek, Pompeian, Byzantine and Japanese that inspired both her father's and her own work.  

In 1886 the Alma-Tademas moved to Grove End Road, in the popular artistic enclave of St John's Wood, where the present work was painted. An open and engaging portrait, the work reinforces her precocious talent and eye for detail, especially in the varying textures evident. A portrait of Anna by her father (1883) is also in the Royal Academy collection.