Editing Lawrence Alma-Tadema (section)

==Reputation and sale prices==
[[File:Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - The finding of Moses.jpg|thumb|''[[The Finding of Moses (Alma-Tadema painting)|The Finding of Moses]]'', 1904, oil on canvas, 137.7 × 213.4&nbsp;cm, private collection. It includes a number of archaeologically precise objects and inscriptions, the results of Tadema's diligent research. After Tadema spent two years working on the painting, his wife pointed out wryly that the infant Moses was now a toddler, and need no longer be carried.<ref name = " Swanson 29">Swanson, '' Alma-Tadema'', p. 29</ref>]]

[[File:Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, R.A., O.M. - Sappho and Alcaeus - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Sappho and Alcaeus]]'', completed in 1881, depicts [[Sappho]] and her companions listening as the poet [[Alcaeus of Mytilene]] plays a [[kithara]], on the island of Lesbos ([[Walters Art Museum]]).<ref>{{cite web |publisher= [[Walters Art Museum]]
 |url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/10245  |title=Sappho and Alcaeus }}</ref>]]
Alma-Tadema was one of the most popular painters of the Victorian era,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Norwich|first=John Julius|author-link=John Julius Norwich|title=Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Arts|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordillustrate00norw|url-access=limited|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0198691372|location=US|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordillustrate00norw/page/13 13]}}</ref> and among the most financially successful, though never matching [[Edwin Henry Landseer]]. For over sixty years, he gave his audience exactly what they wanted: distinctive, elaborate paintings of beautiful people in classical settings. His detailed reconstructions of ancient Rome, with languid men and women posed against white marble in dazzling sunlight, provided his audience with a glimpse of an exotic world of titillating luxury and intimate drama. 

As with other painters, the [[Copyright|reproduction rights]] for prints were often worth more than the canvas. For example, a painting together with its rights may have been sold to Gambart for £10,000 in 1874; then in 1903, when Alma-Tadema's prices were actually higher, it was sold again without rights for £2,625. Typical prices were between £2,000 and £3,000 in the 1880s, but at least three works sold for between £5,250 and £6,060 in the 1900s. Prices held well until the general collapse of the market for Victorian art in the early 1920s, when they fell to the hundreds, where they remained until the 1960s; by 1969 £4,600 had been reached again (equivalent to about £700 in 1900, adjusted for inflation).<ref>Reitlinger, 243–244, also Vol III, 31–32 for 1960s</ref>

The last years of Alma-Tadema's life saw the rise of [[Post-Impressionism]], [[Fauvism]], [[Cubism]] and [[Futurism (art)|Futurism]], all of which he disapproved. As his pupil [[John Collier (Pre-Raphaelite painter)|John Collier]] wrote, 'it is impossible to reconcile the art of Alma-Tadema with that of [[Matisse]], [[Gauguin]] and [[Picasso]].'<ref name="Swanson 43">Swanson, '' Alma-Tadema'', p. 43.</ref> His artistic legacy almost vanished. As the taste of the public and the artistic elite turned to twentieth-century [[modernism]], it became fashionable to denounce his style. [[John Ruskin]] declared him "the worst painter of the 19th century", and one critic considered his paintings "about worthy enough to adorn [[bourbon biscuit|bourbon]] boxes". After this brief period of condemnation, he was consigned to obscurity for the next half century. 

Only since the 1960s has Alma-Tadema's work been rediscovered for its historical importance in the evolution of English art. He is now regarded by art historians as one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century, whose works demonstrate the care and exactitude of an era mesmerised by trying to visualise the past, some of which was being recovered through archaeological research.

Alma-Tadema's highly detailed depictions of Roman life and architecture, based on meticulous archaeological research, led Hollywood directors to his paintings as models for their cinematic ancient world, in films such as [[D. W. Griffith]]'s ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' (1916), ''[[Ben-Hur (1925 film)|Ben Hur]]'' (1926), and ''[[Cleopatra (1934 film)|Cleopatra]]'' (1934). The most notable was [[Cecil B. DeMille]]'s epic ''[[The Ten Commandments (1956 film)|The Ten Commandments]]'' (1956):<ref name="Swanson 43" /> its co-writer [[Jesse Lasky Jr.]] described how the director would spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to guide his set designers. The design of the Oscar-winning Roman epic ''[[Gladiator (2000 film)|Gladiator]]'' (2000) took its main inspiration from his paintings,<ref name="Barrow 197">Barrow, '' Lawrence Alma-Tadema'', p. 197</ref> as well as that of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe|The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' (2005).<ref>{{cite video|people=[[Andrew Adamson]]|title=The Chronicles of Narnia:The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe <nowiki>[Crew Commentary]</nowiki>|medium=DVD|date=2006}}</ref>

In 1962, New York art dealer [[Robert Isaacson]] mounted the first show of Alma-Tadema's work in fifty years,<ref name="Isaacson">''An Exhibition to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1836–1912''. New York: Robert Isaacson Gallery, 1962.</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Grace Glueck |title=Robert Isaacson, 71: Dealer in French, English Art |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=e5ZGAAAAIBAJ&pg=1373,4147970&dq=robert-isaacson&hl=en |pages=B8 |work=The Day |agency=New York Times News Service |location=New London |date=19 November 1998 |access-date=30 May 2013|author-link= Grace Glueck}}</ref> and by the late 1960s, the revival of interest in Victorian painting gained impetus with a number of well-attended exhibitions.<ref name="Swanson 62">Swanson, '' Alma-Tadema'', p. 62.</ref> [[Allen Funt]], the creator and host of the American television show ''[[Candid Camera]]'', was a collector of Alma-Tadema paintings during the 20th century nadir of the artist's reputation;<ref name="Swanson 58">Swanson, ''Alma-Tadema'', p. 58.</ref> in a few years he bought 35 works, about ten per cent of Alma-Tadema's output. After Funt was robbed by his accountant, he was forced to sell his collection at Sotheby's London in November 1973.<ref name="Swanson 59">Swanson, ''Alma-Tadema'', p. 59.</ref> 
 	
In 1960, the Newman Gallery was unable to sell, or even give away, one of his most celebrated works, ''[[The Finding of Moses (Alma-Tadema painting)|The Finding of Moses]]'' (1904). The initial purchaser had paid £5,250 in 1904, and subsequent sales were for £861 in 1935, £265 in 1942, and it was "bought in" at £252 in 1960 (having failed to meet its reserve).<ref>Reitlinger, 243–244</ref> But when the same picture was auctioned at Christies New York in May 1995, it sold for £1.75 million. On 4 November 2010 it sold for $35,922,500 to an undisclosed bidder at [[Sotheby's]] New York, a new record for any Victorian artist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08673&live_lot_id=56|title=Lot 56|url-status=dead}}</ref> On 5 May 2011, the painting ''The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra: 41 BC'' was sold at the same house for $29.2 million.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sothebys.com/app/ecatalogue/fhtml/index.jsp?event_id=30495#/r=index-fhtml.jsp?event_id=30495%7cr.main=lot.jsp?event_id=30495&id=65|title=Lot 65 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Alma-Tadema's ''The Tepidarium'' (1881) is included in the 2006 book ''1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die''. Julian Treuherz, Keeper of Art Galleries at [[National Museums Liverpool]], describes it as an "exquisitely painted picture... [which] carries a strong erotic charge, rare for a Victorian painting of the nude".<ref>{{Cite book|first=Julian |last=Treuherz |editor=Stephen Farthing|title=1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die|publisher=Quintet Publishing Ltd|location=London|year=2006|isbn=1-84403-563-8 |page=492}}</ref>