Editing Lawrence Alma-Tadema (section)

===Early life===
[[File:Dronrijp.Dûbelestreek.2-01.JPG|thumb|Alma-Tadema's birth house and statue in [[Dronryp]], Netherlands]]

Alma-Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of [[Dronryp]] in the province of [[Friesland]] in the north of the [[Netherlands]].<ref name=" Swanson 8">Swanson, ''Alma-Tadema'', p. 8.</ref> The surname ''Tadema'' is an old Frisian [[patronymic]], meaning 'son of Tade', while the names ''Lourens'' and ''Alma'' came from his godfather.<ref name=" Barrow 10">Barrow, ''Lawrence Alma-Tadema'', p. 10</ref> He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema (1797–1840), the village [[notary]], and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer (1800–1863). His father had three sons from a previous marriage. His parents' first child died young, and the second was Artje (1834–1876), Lourens' sister, for whom he had great affection.

The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the nearby city of [[Leeuwarden]], where Pieter's position as a notary would be more lucrative.<ref name=" Swanson 8"/> His father died when Lourens was four, leaving his mother with five children: Lourens, his sister, and three boys from his father's first marriage. His mother had artistic leanings and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education. He received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers.

It was intended that the boy would become a lawyer; but in 1851 at the age of fifteen he suffered a physical and mental breakdown. Diagnosed as [[Tuberculosis|consumptive]] and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. Left to his own devices, he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist.<ref name=" Barrow 10"/>