Editing Lawrence Alma-Tadema (section)

===Early works===
[[File:Egyptian chess players.jpg|right|thumb|''Egyptian [[History of chess|Chess]] Players'' (1865), oil on wood, 39.8 × 55.8&nbsp;cm (private)]]

[[Merovingian]] subjects were the painter's favourites up to the mid-1860s. However Merovingian subjects did not have a wide international appeal, so he switched to themes of life in ancient [[Egypt]], which were [[Ancient Egypt in the Western imagination|more popular]]. In 1862 Alma-Tadema left Leys's studio and started his own career, establishing himself as a significant classical-subject artist.
[[File:Anna Alma Tadema (1864-1940) and Laurense Alma Tadema (1865-1940), by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.jpg|thumb|left|A portrait of the artist's daughters (1873)]]
On 3 January 1863 his invalid mother died, and on 24 September he was married, in [[Antwerp City Hall]], to Marie-Pauline Gressin-Dumoulin de Boisgirard, the daughter of Eugène Gressin-Dumoulin, a French journalist living near [[Brussels]].<ref name="Swanson 13">Swanson, '' Alma-Tadema'', p. 13.</ref> Nothing is known of their meeting and little of Pauline herself, as Alma-Tadema never spoke about her after her death in 1869. Her image appears in a number of oils, though he painted her portrait only three times, the most notable appearing in ''My studio'' (1867).<ref name="Barrow 20">Barrow, '' Lawrence Alma-Tadema'', p. 20</ref> The couple had three children. Their eldest and only son lived only a few months dying of [[smallpox]]. Their two daughters, [[Laurence Alma-Tadema|Laurence]] (1865–1940) and [[Anna Alma-Tadema|Anna]] (1867–1943), both had artistic leanings: the former in literature, the latter in art. Neither would marry.
[[File:The_Mirror_by_Sir_Lawrence_Alma-Tadema.jpg|thumb|''The Mirror'', 1868]]
Alma-Tadema and his wife spent their honeymoon in [[Florence]], [[Rome]], [[Naples]] and [[Pompeii]]. This, his first visit to Italy, developed his interest in depicting the life of ancient Greece and Rome, especially the latter since he found new inspiration in the ruins of Pompeii, which fascinated him and would inspire much of his work in the coming decades. There he met [[Geremia Discanno]], an Italian painter who had been commissioned by archaeologist [[Giuseppe Fiorelli]] to reproduce the brightly painted frescoes being uncovered in the excavations of Pompeii and [[Herculaneum]] before they faded from exposure. He would consult Discanno a number of times before Discanno's death in 1907 to ensure his paintings of antiquity would reflect the lifestyle of residents of the Greco-Roman world accurately.<ref name="bio">{{cite book |last1=Vinella |first1=Pasquale Roberto |title=Geremia Discanno il pittore di Pompei |date=July 2021 |publisher=Editrice Rotas |location=Barletta, Italy |isbn=978-88-94983-81-4}}</ref>

During the summer of 1864, Tadema met [[Ernest Gambart]], the most influential print publisher and art dealer of the period. Gambart was highly impressed with the work of Tadema, who was then painting ''Egyptian Chess Players'' (1865). The dealer, recognising at once the unusual gifts of the young painter, gave him an order for twenty-four pictures and arranged for three of Tadema's paintings to be shown in London.<ref name = " Swanson 15">Swanson, '' Alma-Tadema'', p. 15.</ref> In 1865, Tadema relocated to Brussels where he was named a knight of the [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|Order of Leopold]].

On 28 May 1869, after years of ill health, Pauline died of [[smallpox]] at Schaerbeek in Belgium, aged 32.<ref name = " Barrow 41">Barrow, '' Lawrence Alma-Tadema'', p. 41</ref> Her death left Tadema disconsolate and depressed. He ceased painting for nearly four months. His sister Artje, who lived with the family, helped with the two daughters then aged five and two. Artje took over the role of housekeeper and remained with the family until 1873 when she married.<ref name=" Barrow 41"/>

During the summer Tadema himself began to suffer from a medical problem which doctors in Brussels were unable to diagnose. Gambart eventually advised him to go to England for another medical opinion. Soon after his arrival in London in December 1869, Alma-Tadema was invited to the home of the painter [[Ford Madox Brown]]. There he met [[Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema|Laura Theresa Epps]], who was seventeen years old, and fell in [[Love at first sight|love with her at first sight]].<ref name = " Barrow 60">Barrow, '' Lawrence Alma-Tadema'', p. 60</ref>