Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A.

Sold to Ernest Gambart in 1864;
Messrs. P.L. Everard & Co., by 1869;
Christie's, 17 May 1870, lot 67 to Arthur Tooth & Sons;
Charles Kurtz, by whom offered Christie's, 21 March 1880, unsold;
Christie's, 12 February 1881, lot 66 bought by Nathan Mitchell by whom sold to Mr A.G. Hill;
Christie's, 19 June 1897, lot 37;
Gooden & Fox, London;
Holland Fine Art, London by 1899;
A.Preyer, The Hague, by 1913;
Mr Haasman, by 1923 and by whom sold Kleykamp auctions, The Hague, 20 March 1923, lot 47;
Mrs J.R. Lamberton, by whom sold Christie's, 24 October 1980, lot 67;
Sotheby's, 26 November 1985, lot 39, where purchased by the present owner

Rotterdam, Akademie voor Bildenkunst, 1862, no.5;
Brussels, Exposition Generale des Beaux-Arts, 1864;
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Winter Exhibition, 1882-3, no.21;
Holland Fine Art Gallery, August 1899;
Royal Academy, Works by the late Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A., 1913, no.26

Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Rotterdam, XVII, 1864, p.468;
Art Journal, 1883, pp.34-5;
Carel Vosmaer, Catalogue Raisonne of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, c.1885, no.22;
George Moritz Ebers, Lorenz Alma-Tadema his life and works, 1886, p.24;
The Artist, XXVI, August 1899, illustrated p.215;
Percy Cross Standing, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema O.M., R.A., 1904, pp.26-27;
Vern G. Swanson, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1977, p.135 (1862-XVI location unknown)

The canvas has been lined. The canvas is not quite secure in the frame and there is some rubbing and abrasion visible to the upper edge. Otherwise the work is clean and ready to hang. UV light inspection reveals an opaque and uneven layer of surface varnish and it appears that a restorer has strengthened many of the picture's details and edges and in-filled craquelure. Held in a decorative and gilded frame.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

'This work was a striking object-lesson in Alma-Tadema's gradually developing capacity for microscopic detail - for filling every inch of a small canvas - a field in which he may well be said to have rivalled Meissonier.' (Percy Cross Standing, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema O.M., R.A., 1904, lot.24)

Alma-Tadema appears to have first become interested in subjects from Merovingian history when his tutor Louis de Taeye introduced him to Gregory de Tour's book History of the Franks. According to one of Tadema's biographers, his Education of the Children of Clovis of 1861 (Sotheby's, New York, 4 November 2011, lot 64) 'first laid the foundations for his fame' (Georg Ebers, The Ebers Gallery, 1886, p.23) and a year later he painted the present picture in the same theme. It depicts Gunthram Bose, the leader of the army for King Sigebert of Aquitaine. When the king was poisoned, Bose returned from Poitiers and sought refuge, along with his two daughters, at St Martin de Tours. Having returned to Aquitaine, Bose heard of a plot by his brother King Chilperic of Neustria to harm his daughters and embarked with haste to protect them. The dramatic scene depicted by Tadema shows Bose saving his daughters from the ambush by Chilperic's cavalry led by Drokolen. Bose had offered his entire fortune to Drakolen and his men for the free passage of his daughters but Drakolen mercilessly surged forward on his horse and Bose slayed him with his sword. 

An anonymous critic in the Art Journal wrote: 'A Visigothic skirmishing scene, in which action is carried to a point of audacity as regards foreshortening and poses; motion, however, stands as the most determined early attempt at movement by an artist who is above most of his contemporaries, the painter of Repose.' (Art Journal, 1883, pp.34-5) Three years later, Helen Zimmern wrote in the Art Journal: 'Clovis’s Children was followed by yet a further series of works inspired by the Merovingian Chronicles. We can here but mention Venantius, Fortunatus and Radagonda, now in the museum at Dordrecht, and the highly interesting Gunthram Bose. This last picture is full of movement, and colouring superb. It affords also an admirable example of Tadema’s method of filling out every inch on canvas.'

Tadema exhibited the painting in Rotterdam in 1862 but was encouraged by Alfred Verwee to repaint the oxen shortly before he re-exhibited it in 1864 at Brussels.