Standbeeld van Marcus Aurelius

1851

Consumption at fifteen: the choice of art

Intense study led to a breakdown: at fifteen Lourens was diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live, and awaiting death he drew and painted ever more intensely. He regained his health and his mother had to accept his wish to become an artist; his first easel works, a portrait of his sister Artje and a self-portrait, date from 1850–51.

1862

An independent career and the Merovingian cycle

In 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leys's studio and began working on his own; spurred by the success of his debut he created a whole cycle of scenes of Merovingian society, among them one with the poet-bishop Venantius Fortunatus and Queen Radegund. Asked why he kept painting barbarians, he replied that in themselves they did not matter, but “they are picturesque”.

summer 1864

Ernest Gambart: an order for 24 pictures and a London show

In the summer of 1864 Alma-Tadema met Ernest Gambart, the most influential print publisher and art dealer of the period; impressed by his Egyptian pictures, among them “Egyptian Chess Players”, Gambart ordered twenty-four paintings and arranged for three of them to be shown in London.

December 1869

First meeting with Laura Epps at Ford Madox Brown's

Soon after his arrival in London in December 1869, Alma-Tadema was invited to the home of the painter Ford Madox Brown, where he met the seventeen-year-old Laura Theresa Epps and fell in love with her at first sight.

September 1870

Move to London: the war, Gambart and Laura

The outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870 encouraged Alma-Tadema to leave the continent; his infatuation with Laura Epps and Gambart's view that London would help his career also weighed. He arrived in London with his daughters and sister at the beginning of September, living first in the house of the painter Frederick Goodall, and anglicised his name, moving “Alma” into his surname so as to appear at the beginning of exhibition catalogues.

25 June 1912

Died