Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema

I went to Leeuwarden, in the North of Holland, with my best friend, to see an exhibition on this romantic painter. Born in Friesland in 1836, moved to Belgium to study art when he was 16, married and had two little girls, moved to London with his girls when he was widowed, met his second wife there and spent the rest of his life there. His work was not much known or liked in Holland, but he was famous in England. So much, he even got knighted.

He made, in my opinion, beautiful paintings. He studied the classic history, read the classics, studied old Roman finds, even bought them to put in his own house. All his study resulted in this look on Roman history in paintings.

Several of his paintings have later on be used by film directors, to create the same scene, atmosphere and costumes.

It was a very interesting and beautiful exhibition of this Frisian painter. Besides his paintings we saw paintings by his second wife, by his daughter, paintings by his friends, photos of the house they lived in, furniture from his house. It was very diverse. We also saw some footage of movies like The Gladiator, Quo Vadis and other Roman films, because costumes and scenes were practically a copy of his paintings.

A great day out. Well worth the 5 hours spent in the car. :-)