ALMA TADEMA.

Evening Post, Volume LIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1897, Page 2

ALMA TADEMA.

The inscriptions in Mr. Alma Tadema'u house are an interesting feature. From the hearty " Salve " above the house door to the graceful salutation in the ante-hall — I count myself in nothing else so happy, As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends — they breathe (nays Mr. Spielmann in an article in the November Magazine of Art) a love of wit and a cordial welcome to the visitor. Outttide the bed-chamber is a God-keep-you, and facing, so that it may meet the eye of tho occupant on his quitting the room in the morning, is a cheery goodmorrow that should put him in excellent humour for the day. And the point of it all ia that some of the letters are printed in scarlet, which, reckoning Roman fashion, amount to numbers that mark, literally, red - letter dates in the Alma - Tadema family. Mr. Spielmann tells a story of Mr. Tadema's good fortune in connexion with Mr. Gambart, who at one time ruled tho picture market in Western Europe. When Gambart visited Antwerp Leys purposely misdirected the.., picture-king to bis pupil's studio instead of to another's, and Tadema received the yearned-for visitor. When Gambart discovered where he had been deposited, and saw the jolly, smiling young artist at the door, he could not find it in his heart to drive away ; so he entered. "Do you mean to say," he demanded, brusquely, " thatyou painted that picture?" And he pointed, with obvious surprise, to thb " Coming out of Church," which stood upon the easel. Mr. Tadema bowed assent. " Well, then," he added, after a few words as to price, "let me have twentyfour of the sort, at progressive prioes for each half-dozen." Here was a stroke of un-heard-of luck .' And, to make matters better, Gambart agreed, after much pleading, that the painter •might go baok to antiquity instead of to the Middle Ages. Thus it came about that some of the artist's most famous works were included among the piotures which had been ordered, like glovei, at so much per doaen.