In the mid-1860s, Alma-Tadema painted a number of subjects set in ancient Egypt, in which convincing archaeological precision and uncanny lifelikeness seem to make the distant past come alive. This method paralleled that of Orientalist painters such as Jean-Léon Gérôme, who specialized both in depictions of contemporary life in the Middle East and in historical subjects. Later in his career, Alma-Tadema would specialize in scenes of ancient Rome.
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Title:An Egyptian in a Doorway
Artist:Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (British (born The Netherlands), Dronrijp 1836–1912 Wiesbaden)
Date:1865
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:22 x 15 1/2 in. (55.9 x 39.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Gift of Kenneth Jay Lane, 2017
Object Number:2017.202.1
Inscription: Signed (lower left): L. Alma-Tadema
[Ernest Gambart, London, 1865–at least 1867; commissioned from the artist]; Sir Henry Thompson, London (by 1872–at least 1884); Mrs. Henry Law de Candole, Bristol (by 1913–her d.); her widower, Bishop of Knaresborough (until 1959; bequeathed to The College); The College, Ripon, Yorkshire (1959–73; sale, Sotheby's Belgravia, March 27, 1973, no. 83, for £6,500 to Gibbs); [Christopher Gibbs, London, 1973–74; sold to Lane]; Kenneth Jay Lane, New York (1974–2017)
Paris. Champ-de-Mars. "Exposition universelle de 1867," 1867, no. 4 under "Royaume des Pays Bas" (as "Jeu[ne] égyptien," lent by M. Gambart).
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Exhibition of Works by the Late Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema R.A. O.M.," January 6–March 15, 1913, no. 11 (as "Egyptien à la porte," lent by Mrs. H. L. de Candole).
Georg Ebers. Aegypten in Bild und Wort: dargestellt von unseren ersten Künstlern. Vol. 1, Stuttgart, 1879, ill. p. 139, as "Bürger von Memphis".
Edmund W. Gosse. "Lawrence Alma-Tadema, R. A." Illustrated Biographies of Modern Artists. Ed. F.-G. Dumas. Vol. 2, section 4, Paris, 1882, p. 85, calls it "Comme l'on s'ennuyait" and identifies it as Alma-Tadema's final painting completed in Antwerp; describes it as "an admirable Egyptian subject, a handsome young priest, in an attitude of dejection, leaning against one pillar of the doorway of his house".
L'art 37 (1884), ill. opp. p. 190 (etching by Edmond Ramus), as "Egyptien à l'entrée de sa demeure," in the collection of Sir Henry Thompson.
Carel Vosmaer, Laurence Alma Tadema, and C. J. C. Vosmaer. Alma-Tadema Catalogue Raisonné. ca. 1885, no. 37 [see Swanson 1990].
H[elen]. Zimmern. L. Alma Tadema, Royal Academician: His Life & Work. London, 1886, p. 10, as "The Egyptian at his Doorway"; discusses it as Alma-Tadema's first application of genre painting to antique subjects and calls it "the forerunner of innumerable other pictures conceived in the same spirit".
Percy Cross Standing. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema O. M., R. A. London, 1905, pp. 33–34, as "An Egyptian at his Doorway"; discusses the care Alma-Tadema put into its preliminary sketches.
Rudolf Dircks. The Late Works of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema O.M., R.A., R.W.S. London, December 1910 [supplementary Christmas issue of "Art Journal"], p. 25, lists it as opus XXVI, "Egyptian at his Door," and dates it 1865.
Christopher Forbes. Victorians in Togas: Paintings by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema from the Collection of Allen Funt. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1973, unpaginated, under no. 2, notes that "Egyptian at his Door" (ca. 1865, present whereabouts unknown) may be an oil sketch for The Met's picture.
Alma-Tadema. New York, 1977, colorpl. 2, as "An Egyptian in his Doorway".
Maarten J. Raven. "Alma Tadema als amateur-egyptoloog." Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 28, no. 3 (1980), pp. 106–7, fig. 3, calling it one of two versions of "An Egyptian at his Doorway," states that the influence of Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson is unmistakable, particularly in its repetition of the door with a hieroglyphic group above it, the checker-frieze on the crown of the wall, and the heavy gold bracelet, all presumably derived from illustrations in Wilkinson's "The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians" (1837); notes the precisely rendered cartouche of Ramses II on the column at left.
Vern G. Swanson. The Biography and Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. London, 1990, pp. 135, 502, no. 65, ill. p. 296, calls it "An Egyptian at His Doorway in Memphis"; identifies it as Opus XXVI according to the numbering system begun by the artist in 1872; dates it May 1865 and states that this was the final work painted by the artist in Antwerp before he moved to Brussels between May and August 1865.
The artist gave a reduced variant of this picture to the Belgian painter Alfred Stevens in 1865 (present whereabouts unknown). There is also a related drawing formerly in the Kenneth Jay Lane collection (sale, Christie’s, New York, June 6, 2018, no. 50), possibly produced in connection with Edmond Ramus’s reproductive etching of 1884 (The Met 2018.614.2).
In the style of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (British (born The Netherlands), Dronrijp 1836–1912 Wiesbaden)
1875–90
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