Lot 121: Laura, Lady Alma-Tadema (1852-1909)

In Good Hands
signed 'Laura A.T.' (lower right) and indistinctly dated
oil on panel
15 3/8 11 1/4 in. (39 x 28.5 cm.)

Henry Gurdon Marquand; (+) American Art Association, 23 January 1903, lot 46.

The American connoisseur Henry G. Marquand (1819-1902), to whom this picture belonged, was a creator and Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and one of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's most important patrons. In 1884 he granted Sir Lawrence a limitless budget to embellish the Music Salon of his new Madison Avenue mansion in 'the antique style', in order to serve as a worthy focal point for New York Society during the City's late 19th Century Golden Age. The centrepiece of the room, which included furnishings now to be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, was a magnificent Steinway pianoforte, decorated by Alma-Tadema with the names of the muses. The piano was sold at Christie's London, 7 November 1997, lot 86 (£650,000) and is now in the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. Two paintings by Alma-Tadema, Amo Te, Amo Me, and A Reading from Homer, also hung in the room.

Marquand's mansion, built in the French transitional style, and compared by critics favourably to his architect's other notable mansion built for William Kissam Vanderbilt, contained in addition to the Music Room an English Renaissance dining room, hung with late 16th Century Flemish tapestries, a Japanese room to house Marquand's collection of Asian Art, and a Moorish smoking room, decorated with Iznik wares. Throughout the house, Marquand's collection of fine and decorative art constituted an integral part of the interior decoration, forming picturesque arrangements in the Aesthetic taste.

According to Russell Sturgis, who wrote the introduction to the Illustrated Catalogue of the Art & Literary Property collected by the late Henry G Marquand, Marquand bought fine and decorative art 'like a Prince of the Italian Renaissance'. His gift of 50 paintings by English and European Old Masters enabled the Metropolitan to be established as one of the most important museums in the world. His benefaction included four paintings by Rembrandt, two by Van Dyck, three by Rubens, one by Van Eyck, and Vermeer's Woman with a Water Jug. Remarkably, Marquand did not live with these treasures which were specifically acquired to help the Museum create a historically representative collection.

He did however undoubtedly live with Laura Alma-Tadema's work which would have been found in one of the mansions eclectic interiors. Taught to paint by Alma-Tadema, Laura found her subject matter in the art of her husband's homeland. Her pictures echo and evoke those executed in Holland in the 17th Century, and often pay homage to the quiet stillness portrayed in the works of Vermeer. Her love of the decorative arts of Holland can be seen in the blue Delft tiles, and carefully crafted bed of the present picture. Several interiors in in her own houses, first at Townshend House, Regent's Park, and later at 17 Grove End Road, St. John's Wood, featured rooms furnished in the Dutch taste. A painting of one such interior, recorded by her sister Ellen Epps, was sold at Christie's, London, 11 June 2004, lot 163.

Laura followed her husband's habit of numbering her pictures with consecutive opus numbers. An indistinct opus number can be seen on the bedpost to the right.

We are grateful to Professor Vern Swanson of the Springville Museum of Art, Utah, for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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