Quick Facts
Biography
Anna Alma-Tadema (1867–1943) was a British artist, daughter of painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. She created drawings and paintings of portraits, interior scenes, flowers and buildings. She was influenced by her father, and showed her works at exhibitions with her father and step-mother, Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema. Her work was shown at national exhibitions, like the Royal Academy of Arts, and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago where she won a prize. She also won a medal at the 1889 Paris exhibition.
Early life
Anna Alma-Tadema was the second daughter of Dutch painter Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and his French wife, Marie-Pauline Gressin de Boisgirard who lived in Brussels. Her older sister, Laurence, was born in 1864. The girls' mother died in 1869. Lawrence and his daughters then moved to England. Her father married for a second time to Laura Epps in 1871, when Anna was four years old.
Laurence received her education at home and it is believed that Anna was home-schooled, too. She grew up in London. Anna Alma-Tadema appears at least twice in paintings by her father. In 1873 she and her sister were depicted in This is Our Corner and her father painted her portrait in 1883.
Anna's mother, father, and step-mother were painters. Lawrence was inspired by words from antiquity and developed a style that was emulated by Laura, Anna and other artists. Once he died, the popularity of his works and style waned for about six decades. Anna's sister, Laurence was a poet, novelist, critic, playwright, and short story author.
Artist
Alma-Tadema painted portraits, like Miss Tessa Gosse. This and other works, like The Misty Valley and The Gold Room, were shown at the Royal Academy of Arts. She also made paintings of flowers, pencil and chalk portraits, and watercolours of house interiors and buildings.
Anna Alma-Tadema made watercolours of the interior of the Alma-Tadema family house, Townshend House, Tichfield Terrace, near Regent's Park in London. It was extravagantly decorated by her father to resemble a Roman villa. The Drawing Room, which she painted when she was a teenager, was exhibited in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. shown at the April 2011 Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition, The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900 in London. The Gold Room, also made in 1885, was made of the house's interior. Alma-Tadema was described by biographer Helen Zimmern as a "delicate, dainty artist who has inherited so much of her father's power for reproducing detail."
Alma-Tadema exhibited works in England from 1885 to 1928. In 1889 she won a medal at the Paris exhibition. For instance, she exhibited The Idler's Harvest at the Royal Academy in 1898. Anna, father Lawrence, and stepmother Laura all exhibited and won prizes at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. John Hipkins made an etching of one of her works that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897. The Women Painters of the World (1905) book by Walter Shaw Sparrow included her self-portrait.
Personal life
She was committed to women's right to vote and signed the Some Supporters of the Women's Suffrage Movement in 1897.
Neither Anna Alma-Tadema nor her sister married. They were poor and did not have successful careers in their later years.