Lawrence Alma-Tadema, although born in Holland, settled in London and took British nationality in 1873. Like his Dutch contemporaries, Alma-Tadema mastered the art of genre painting, specializing in historical genre scenes. However, following a trip to Pompeii in the late 1860s, his style and ideas changed, turning more to the ancient world. He set out to recreate Rome and Greece by painting beautiful men and women who reposed within marble settings of archaeological exactitude. Alma-Tadema was knighted and received an Order of Merit within his lifetime, and, although his paintings were publicly acclaimed during his lifetime, following his death in 1912, they fell out of favor.

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