Editing Lawrence Alma-Tadema (section)

==Style==
[[File:Silver Favourites, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.jpg|thumb|''Silver Favourites'', 1903, oil on wood, 69.1 × 42.2&nbsp;cm, [[Manchester Art Gallery]]. An example of Alma-Tadema's contrasting gleaming white marble against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean sea.<ref name = " Swanson 131">Swanson, '' Alma-Tadema'', p. 131</ref> The artist obliterated the middle-ground, and the foreground is abruptly juxtaposed with the distant horizon, creating a dramatic effect.<ref name = " Swanson 54">Swanson, '' Alma-Tadema'', p. 54</ref>]]
Alma-Tadema's works are remarkable for their depiction of flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances like metals, pottery, and especially marble (leading to the nickname 'marbellous painter'). His work shows much of the fine execution and brilliant colour of the old Dutch masters.

From early in his career, Alma-Tadema was particularly concerned with architectural accuracy,<ref>Calinski, ''Catull in Bild und Ton'', 98-141</ref> often painting objects from museums, such as the [[British Museum]] in London. He also took many images from books and amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy, which he used to achieve the most precise detail in his painting.

Alma-Tadema was a perfectionist, repeatedly reworking parts of paintings until he found them satisfactory. One story relates that after one of his paintings was rejected, he gave the canvas to a maid for a table cover. He was sensitive to every detail and architectural line in his settings. He would often paint from life, using fresh flowers from across Europe and even [[Africa]], rushing to paint the flowers before they withered. His commitment to veracity earned him recognition, but also led some critics to accuse him of pedantry.

Alma-Tadema's work has been linked with that of European Symbolist painters.<ref name = " Barrow 192">Barrow, '' Lawrence Alma-Tadema'', p. 192</ref> He influenced European painters such as [[Gustav Klimt]] and [[Fernand Khnopff]],<ref name=" Barrow 192"/> who incorporated classical motifs, as well as Alma-Tadema's unconventional compositional devices such as abrupt cut-off at the edge of the canvas. Like Alma-Tadema, they also employ coded imagery to suggest hidden meanings.<ref name=" Barrow 192"/>