In 1852 he entered the Royal Academy of Antwerp in Belgium where he studied early Dutch and Flemish art, under Gustaf Wappers. Left to his own devices, he regained his health and decided to pursue a career as an artist. Diagnosed as consumptive and given only a short time to live, he was allowed to spend his remaining days at his leisure, drawing and painting. 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. He received his first art training with a local drawing master hired to teach his older half-brothers. His mother had artistic leanings, and decided that drawing lessons should be incorporated into the children's education. 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. The Tadema family moved in 1838 to the nearby city of Leeuwarden, where Pieter's position as a notary would be more lucrative. 1834–1876), Lourens' sister, for whom he had great affection. His parents' first child died young, and the second was Artje ( c. His father had three sons from a previous marriage. He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema (1797–1840), the village notary, and the third child of Hinke Dirks Brouwer ( c.

The surname Tadema is an old Frisian patronymic, meaning 'son of Tade', while the names Lourens and Alma came from his godfather. Lourens Alma Tadema was born on 8 January 1836 in the village of Dronryp in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. Lourens Alma Tadema's birth house and statue in Dronryp, Netherlands Though admired during his lifetime for his draftsmanship and depictions of Classical antiquity, his work fell into disrepute after his death, and only since the 1960s has it been re-evaluated for its importance within nineteenth-century British art. Alma-Tadema was considered one of the most popular Victorian painters.

A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in London, England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA ( / ˈ æ l m ə ˈ t æ d eɪ m ə/ born Lourens Alma Tadema Dutch pronunciation: 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873.

Lawrence alma tadema paintings for sale