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49
INTERRUPTED - A TYPE OF FEMININE BEAUTY. 1880
SIR
LAWRENCE ALMA-TADEMA, O.M., R.A.
1836 - 1912
Oil
on panel, 43.2 x 30.5 (17 x 12)
Signed
and inscribed, L.ALMA-TADEMA, Opus CCXIII (centre, on lower
edge of overmantel pediment).
Provenance:
commissioned by The Graphic magazine, sale Christie's 20 Feb.
1882 (780), bought Lefevre for £199. 10s.; James Hall, sale
Christie's 28 April 1888 (70), bought Ellis for £205. 10s;
Mrs. Edward Reeves, sale Christie's 18 April 1913 (91), bought
Sampson for £60. 18s.: Leger Galleries in 1943; Cecil French.
Exhibited:
The Graphic Gallery, London, Exhibition of Beauties,
1880 (9); Royal Manchester Institution, 1881 (714); Grosvenor
Gallery, Winter Exhibition, 1882 (69); Royal Academy,
Winter Exhibition, 1913 (211).
Literature:
Graphic Magazine Supplement, September 25, 1886, repr.; Swanson,
1977, p.138; Swanson, 1990, pp.57, 210.
A
head and shoulders portrait of the artist's second wife, Laura
Theresa Epps (1852-1909), facing from the right and leaning
forward, holding a copy of The Graphic. She is seated in the
sitting room of Alma-Tadema's London home, Townshend House,
Regent's Park, beneath her bust by Jules Dalou (1838-1902)
which stands on the mantelpiece. Swanson suggests that the
bust may have been exchanged for Alma-Tadema's portrait of
Dalou with his wife and daughter, painted in 1876, which is
now in the Musée D'Orsay, Paris.
The
painting was commissioned by The Graphic magazine for an exhibition
of Female Beauty by twelve artists including James
Tissot, Frederic Leighton and Marcus Stone. When reproduced
by The Graphic in 1886 it was accompanied by an editorial
note on p.323 which reads "With this number is issued an extra
double-page supplement entitled Type of Beauty XIV
from the picture by L. Alma-Tadema R.A. exhibited in The Graphic
gallery." However, Interrupted was the title used by
Alma-Tadema in his list of works.
Alma-Tadema
painted several portraits of his wife, who was herself a painter,
and also used her as a model in subject pictures. In 1871,
before they married, he painted her on three occasions but
Interrupted is the sole portrait of her painted between 1876
and 1896, almost certainly because of his many commissions.
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