AN EARTHLY PARADISE.
("ALL THE HEAVENS OF HEAVEN IN ONE LITTLE CHILD.")
Bell's Miniature Series of Painters
SIR LAWRENCE
ALMA TADEMA
R. A.
BY
HELEN ZIMMERN
LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS
1902
CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of the Principal Pictures by AlmaTadema, with Owners' Names
List of the Principal Portraits paintedby Alma Tadema
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
An Earthly Paradise. ("All the Heavensof Heaven in one little child") Frontispiece
All the illustrations are reproduced by special permission
of the Berlin Photographic Company.
LIFE OF
SIR LAWRENCE ALMA TADEMA
Laurens Alma Tadema was bornon January 8th, 1836, at Dronryp, a littletown in the very heart of the Frisian provinceof Holland. Hence by birth Tadema is Dutch,though by residence and naturalization he is nowan Englishman. His Dutch birth, as we shallsee later, was not without significant effect uponthe development and character of his art. Thefather, Pieter Tadema, was an intelligent lawyerwith a pronounced taste for music. Unfortunately,while the young Laurens was still a baby,this parent died, and his education and upbringingwere left entirely in the hands of the mother.A woman of unusual capacity, she found herselfat an early age with four children upon herhands—two, a girl and our painter, being her ownoffspring, and two her husband's by a previousmarriage. The means at her disposal weresmall; but undaunted, she put herself to fightsingle-handed the battle of life, and with suchsuccess, that by her unassisted efforts she wasable to place all her children well. Laurens, heryoungest, was also something of her darling, andeven as a child he realized all his mother wasdoing on her children's behalf.