GRAVE LOCATION London: St.
Paul"s Cathedral
Educated at the Academy in Antwerp, where Louis de Taeye
(1822-1890) and Henri Leys (1815-1869) were among his
teachers.
In 1863 he married Marie Pauline Gressin Dumoulin de
Boisgirard and their honeymoon brought them to Florence,
Rome, Napoli and Pompeď.
He had painted paintings with Egyptian motives before, but
now he dedicated himself to Roman themes, usually portraying
semi nude women with erotic radiations.
When the Belgian art dealer Ernst Gambert saw Alma-Tadema
paintings, he commissioned no less than 44 paintings. When
they were shown in England the paintings immediately became
popular.
Alma-Tadema moved to London where his star was rising and
there he married his young pupil Laura Epps.
Alma Tadema enjoyed his succes and they lived extravagantly
at Townshend House in Tichfield Terrace, Regent"s Park. They
had it redesigned to lool like a Pompeiian villa, but when a
barge with gun powder exploded near the house on Regent"s
Canal it was partially destroyed and soon after its
rebuilding, they moved to a larger house in St. John"s Wood,
previously occupied by his friend the painter Tissot, who
had left England in 1882 after the death of his mistress
Kathleen Newton.
Alma Tadema was a friend of
the future king Edward VII, to whom he dedicated a series of
pornographic works. In his last few years his work became
less popular and he resigned from the Royal Academy
committee.
Laura died in 1909 and Alma-Tadema
reserved a plot for himself beside her at Kensal Green
Cemetery in London. However, when he suddenly died in
Wiesbaden in 1912 he was so famous that he was buried in St.
Paul"s Cathedral.
