Lot 30: LADY LAURA-THÉRÉSA ALMA-TADEMA

IN GOOD HANDS
signed l.r. and indistinctly dated with an opus number: Laura A.T.

39 by 28 1/2 cm., 15 1/2 by 11in.

oil on panel

Henry Gurdon Marquand, New York;
American Art Association, 23 January 1903, lot 46

Laura Alma-Tadema, like her husband Lawrence, was much influenced by the interiors of their most famous countryman Vermeer and this is evident in In Good Hands. It was owned by the American connoisseur Henry G. Marquand (1819-1902), founder and Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and among Lawrence Alma-Tadema's most loyal patrons. In 1884 Marquand commissioned Lawrence to decorate the Music Salon at his new home on Madison Avenue as a focal point for New York Society. He imposed no strict budget and the mansion was sumptuously decorated. The present picture was one of the pictures bought by Marquand for his home rather than for the museum and has a delightful intimacy.