Van Gogh Museum Journal 1996

[p. 56]

fig. 1
Hendrik Willem Mesdag, An interior, 1867, private collection (photograph courtesy of Stichting Mesdag, Wassenaar)

[p. 57]

Cousins and colleagues: the lives of Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Hanna Pennock⁺

The painter Lourens Alma Tadema (1836-1912) - more commonly known to the English-speaking world as Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - was born in 1836. He was a grandson of Riemke Mesdag, and therefore a cousin of the marine painter Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), who was five years old at the time. Though it is not certain whether Lawrence and Hendrik saw much of one another as children, they lived nearby in any case: Alma-Tadema in the Frisian village of Dronrijp and thereafter in the provincial capital of Leeuwarden, Mesdag in another northern Dutch city, Groningen. In later life, we know the two painters were good friends and that their immediate families were close as well. Particularly largely unpublished letters shed a great deal of light on their friendship. Alma-Tadema had a profound influence on Mesdag's early development as a painter. Though the art and artistic views of the two cousins eventually diverged, they had a great deal in common: both men married women who likewise became painters, participated intensely in the cultural life of their day, collected pictures and objets d'art, and enjoyed international renown during their lifetimes.

Lawrence's parents were Pieter Tadema, a notary in Dronrijp who died in 1840 (while Lawrence was still small), and Hinke Brouwer, a woman of ‘perseverance and unflagging devotion.’¹ She wanted her son to become a lawyer, but he preferred to paint; indeed, he painted several portraits while he was still in his teens. Though his mother encouraged him, it was nonetheless against her will that Lawrence left for ‘the Catholic country’ in 1852, where he enrolled in the academy of Antwerp.² In 1863 Alma-Tadema married the Frenchwoman Marie Pauline Gressin, with whom he settled in Paris the following year. Two years later the couple moved to Brussels, where their daughters Laurence and Anna were born, and where, in 1869, Marie Pauline died.

Hendrik Willem Mesdag likewise lost a parent - his mother - in childhood; she died in 1835. We know that his father Klaas, a grain merchant who later became a stock-broker and banker, was an art-lover. A collector who was also an amateur painter and draughtsman, he saw to it that his sons Hendrik and Taco learned how to draw.³ In 1868 Klaas wrote his son Hendrik that he had shown someone by the name of Bastiaans his pictures. The visitor liked them so much ‘that he offered me one hundred sacks of coffee for the six on the south wall upstairs. I did not know I was so rich!’⁴

When Hendrik eventually went to work for his father, he had a splendid career in banking ahead of him. In 1856 he married Sina van Houten, whose father owned a flourishing timber company. Seven years later their son Klaas was born, but died already at the age of seven. The fortune Sientje inherited from her father in 1866 enabled her husband to fulfil what was apparently a long-cherished

+ This article was originally published in Dutch in Jong Holland 9 (1993), no. 1, pp. 8-19. Some of the documents cited here as preserved in The Hague, Panorama Mesdag, have now been transferred to the Van Gogh Museum (Museum Mesdag Archive).

1 G. van Mesdag, Het Geslacht Mesdag, n.p. 1946, p. 148. Lawrence would later add his middle name Alma to his last name and, depending on the country in which he was living, spell his first name ‘Laurens’ or ‘Lawrence.’

2 H.S.N. van Wickevoort Crommelin, ‘Laurens Alma Tadema,’ Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 1 (1891), no. 2, p. 219 and idem in Max Rooses (ed.), Het Schildersboek: Nederlandsche schilders der negentiende eeuw, 5 vols., Amsterdam 1898, vol. 1, p. 144.

3 See J. Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag 1831-1915: Oeuvrecatalogus, Wassenaar 1989, pp. 13-14 (with summaries of each chapter in English).

4 Klaas Mesdag to Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, Groningen, 18 October 1868; The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief, S. van Houten archive, inv. no. 173 (henceforth Van Houten archive).

[p. 58]

dream: he became a painter.⁵ As he wrote his cousin Lawrence, who was painting in Brussels, in the spring of 1866: ‘I'm 35 years old. I've a wife and child. I've been trained for business, but am not cut out for it. I'm a painter; help me.’⁶

Judging from Alma-Tadema's answer of 22 April, he acted as a mediator between Mesdag and a Dutch colleague, Willem Roelofs (1822-1897), who had been living in Brussels ever since 1847.⁷ Roelofs was prepared to take Mesdag on as a pupil for 1,200 francs a year. A comment he made in a letter at about that time suggests that it was the financial aspect of the arrangement that most interested him: ‘In the autumn (September) I'm expecting a new pupil, a cousin of Tadema, Mr Mesdag from Groningen. The 1,200 francs His Honour gives me is nothing to sniff at.’⁸ Alma-Tadema was pleased with his cousin who, having embraced the same profession, had become ‘doubly interesting’ to him.⁹

On 21 May 1866 he wrote Mesdag that while he had not spoken to Roelofs again, he was convinced ‘the deal has been clinched, given the fact that both sides have accepted the conditions without comment.’ Alma-Tadema was writing from London, where he and his wife were visiting friends for ‘some distraction.’ In the end, however, he got more of it than he bargained for. He was staying with the eminent art dealer Ernest Gambart, with whom he had signed a contract in 1864. Gambart had organised a fancy-dress ball for the evening of 16 May and invited the international beau monde. Gas lamps were installed especially for the occasion. In his letter to Mesdag, Alma-Tadema described what happened on the day of the party: ‘A great misfortune has befallen the friends with whom we were staying [...]. Last Wednesday, at eight in the morning, a gas explosion all but demolished their house and its magnificent furnishings. None of us were harmed, but some of the servants were not so lucky. Two of the chambermaids were seriously injured, one of whom has meantime died from her wounds. The gardener was also very badly hurt, while the coachman and the groom were seriously injured as well. [...] Fortunately we were still in bed when all of a sudden we saw our furniture partly destroyed and daylight streaming through a terrible crack in the wall.’¹⁰ As Alma-Tadema assured Mesdag, he ‘would not willingly go through such an experience again.’ Yet his own house in London suffered a similar blow when a ship loaded with gunpowder exploded in 1874.

5 The artist's father seems to have approved of his son's decision, even though it meant leaving his office. In 1868, when he got wind of the fact that Hendrik was making progress, he wrote (9 October 1868): ‘Keep up the good work and fulfil if possible my hope that you will someday become a true artist’ (‘[...] ga zoo voort en vervul zoo mogelijk mijne hoop dat Gij nog eenmaal een waar kunstenaar zult worden’); Van Houten archive, inv. no. 173.

6 Quoted by Alma-Tadema in L. de Ranitz, ‘Het huis van Alma Tadema,’ Het huis: Oud & Nieuw: Maandelijksch prentenboek gewijd aan huisinrichting, bouw- en sierkunst 9 (1911), p. 29: ‘Ik ben vijf en dertig jaar. Ik heb een vrouw en een kind. Ik ben opgeleid voor den handel, maar daar deug ik niet voor. Ik ben schilder, help mij.’

7 The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag; quoted in part by Poort, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 22-23. For more on Mesdag and Brussels see S. de Bodt, ‘Hendrik Willem Mesdag en Brussel,’ Oud Holland 95 (1981), pp. 59-87.

8 Roelofs to P. VerLoren van Themaat, Brussels, 27 May 1866; The Hague, Gemeentearchief; published in H.F.W. Jeltes, ‘Brieven van Willem Roelofs aan Mr. P. VerLoren van Themaat,’ Oud Holland 42 (1925), p. 132: ‘In het najaar (September) wacht ik een nieuwen leerling, neef van Tadema, de heer Mesdag uit Groningen; de 1200 fr. per jaar, die Z.E. [Zijne Edelheid] mij geeft, zijn toch niet te verwerpen.’

9 Op. cit. (note 7).

10 Alma-Tadema to Mesdag, London, 21 May 1866; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 167: ‘Een groot ongeluk [is] aan de vrienden waarbij wij gelogeerd waren overkomen [...]. Woensdag laatstleden is des morgens ter 8 uren hun huis met zijn magnifique meubelen voor een groot gedeelte in de lucht gevlogen door eene gasontploffing. gelukkig zijn wij allen gezond wat helaas het geval niet is met eenige der dienstboden twee der kamermeisjes zijn zeer zwaar gewond de eene is alrede aan de gevolgen daarvan overleden de hovenier is zeer zwaar gewond ook terwijl de koetsier en de palfrenier ook zwaar gewond zijn. [...] Gelukkig waren wij nog te bed toen wij opeens onze meubelen voor een gedeelte vernietigd zagen en de lucht bespeurden door een ontzaggelijke scheur in de muur.’ Jeremy Maas described the event in detail; he tells that ‘the Alma-Tademas had woken earlier, and, smelling gas, had, with great presence of mind, opened their bedroom window; when the explosion occurred they clung to each other in terror, as their bedroom lurched to one side, and a wide crack in the wall appeared through which daylight streamed.’ A picture by Alma-Tadema was also heavily damaged by the explosion. See J. Maas, Gambart: prince of the Victorian art world, London 1975, pp. 189-99, esp. pp. 194-95.

Mesdag and Alma-Tadema in Brussels

Before setting off for Brussels, Mesdag and his wife went to Oosterbeek to paint en plein air. Roelofs had received a letter from Mesdag in the meantime, to which he replied from Brussels on 27 May 1866: ‘As I've already told Alma-Tadema, nothing would give me greater pleasure than helping you with your study of landscape, and I hope to be able to stimulate you to make progress in our art.’ Roelofs heartily approved of Mesdag's plan to spend the summer making sketches directly from nature, ‘since, if you were here, I could advise you to do nothing better.’

[p. 59]

The first lesson began immediately: ‘Try and rid yourself of all so-called manner and, in a word, try and imitate nature with feeling, but without thinking about others' work. Paint studies of parts, a bit of land for instance, a stand of trees or something of the kind, but always in such a way that it can be grasped in connection with the entire landscape [...]. - These studies [are] in order to become acquainted with nature bit by bit. - Further studies of a whole, preferably very simple subjects. - A meadow with the horizon and a bit of sky [...]. Paint all these studies not so you can bring home something beautiful [...] but for yourself.’¹¹

In September 1866 Mesdag arrived in Brussels, where he would remain for three years. At first he painted as Roelofs and Alma-Tadema had advised him to do. Now and then Roelofs went to visit the aspiring artist in his studio, which is apparently where the lessons took place.¹² As the remarks quoted earlier clearly indicate, Roelofs, himself a landscape painter, placed particular emphasis on the study of landscape, and especially on colour and technique.¹³ Yet most of Mesdag's paintings from his Brussels period are detailed figure studies or portions of interiors. His penchant for meticulous observation can be attributed in part to his contact with such Brussels Realists as Louis Dubois and Alfred Verwee.¹⁴ More than anything else, however, it betrays Alma-Tadema's influence, as was already apparent to Anna Croiset, a good friend of the Mesdags: ‘They have survived, those dry but nonetheless fruitful studies. Strikingly accurate and scrupulously detailed, they evince stubborn patience and unfailing loyalty to the lofty principle: representing nature as one observes it, down to the most minute details. That was indicative of Alma-Tadema's point of view.’¹⁵ Alma-Tadema had concentrated on figure pieces which included all the particulars of the setting. One canvas that clearly illustrates Mesdag's debt to his cousin is An interior, painted in 1867 (cf. figs. 1 and 2).¹⁶ The carved wood of the couch and the motifs of the various fabrics and carpets are depicted with the greatest precision. His series of street scenes, in which every stone in the pavement and the walls is shown with equal precision, likewise recalls Alma-Tadema's painstaking manner (fig. 15).

11 Van Houten archive, inv. no. 177: ‘Niets zal mij, zooals ik reeds aan Tadema zeide, aangenamer zijn, als UEd. van nut te kunnen zijn, in het voortzetten Uwer landschapstudie en hoop ik er in te slagen om U vorderingen in onze schoone kunst te doen maken. [...] Tracht u van alle zoo genaamde manier te ontdoen en tracht in een woord de natuur met gevoel maar zonder denken aan het werk van anderen, na te volgen. Schilder studies van gedeelten, bv. een stuk grond, een boomgroep of dergelijke maar toch altijd zóó dat men die in verband met het geheele landschap begrijpen kan [...] - Deze studies om de natuur bij gedeelten te leeren kennen. - Verder studies van een geheel, liefst zeer eenvoudige sujetten - Eene weide met horizon en stuk lucht [...]. Schilder al die studies niet om iets mooi's thuis te brengen [...] maar voor u zelf.’

12 A.C. Croiset van der Kop, ‘Hendrik Willem Mesdag,’ Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 1 (1891), no. 1, p. 432.

13 See his ‘Theorieën’ in H.F.W. Jeltes, Willem Roelofs: Bizonderheden betreffende zijn leven en zijn werk, Amsterdam 1911, passim.

14 De Bodt, op. cit. (note 7), pp. 67 and 61.

15 Croiset, op. cit. (note 12), p. 432; ‘Nog zijn zij bewaard gebleven, die dorre, maar niet minder vruchtbare studies. Treffend waar en scrupuleus uitvoerig, spreken zij van taal geduld en onbezweken trouw aan het boven alles verheven beginsel: de natuur weêrgeven, zooals zij wordt gezien en tot in de geringste onderdeelen. Het was Tadema's opvatting, die daaruit sprak.’ ‘Nature’ signifies observed reality in this context, the subject of the painting.

16 Poort, op. cit. (note 3), no. 1867.1.

‘Painting won't take orders from anyone’

In two letters from 1867 (the only ones by his hand that the Museum Mesdag preserves) Mesdag, in turn, advised his friend A.J. van Prooijen in Groningen on painting. His comments reveal which of his cousin's views he had absorbed.¹⁷

Dated 7 January 1867, by which time Mesdag had been in Brussels for over three months, the first letter is a response to one from Van Prooijen of 20 December 1866 on his work. During the previous summer the two men had apparently discussed painting at length in Oosterbeek. Mesdag wrote of his discovery that even ‘great’ artists had to struggle: ‘I've now observed three really great masters working at close range, namely Bilders,¹⁸ Tadema and Roelofs, and all three of them have to fuss and slave over

17 The second letter is to Van Prooijen; it is not clear to whom the first is addressed, but it was almost certainly also intended for him. Albert Jurardus van Prooijen (1834-1898) was born in Groningen. He was three years younger than Mesdag, whom he must have known in childhood. He painted town views and landscapes.

18 In Oosterbeek, during the summer of 1866, Mesdag had taken lessons from the landscape painter Johannes Warnardus Bilders (1811-1890).

[p. 60]

fig. 2
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Preparations for the festivities, 1866, Williamstown, Mass, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

their work just as much as we do, and often even more.’ He continued to believe that ‘rich tone and depth can only be got working constantly on a piece,’ a notion that derived from Roelofs: ‘Roelofs's advice is to paint thickly by all means, that is, to apply plenty of paint, preferably without oil or turpentine [...]. I hope you understand what I'm saying: not thick colours, for of all people he is the one who achieves that haze and those powerful colours only by over painting repeatedly.’

Mesdag thought it essential to ‘just to keep grinding away,’ to work a lot and learn a lot, ‘that's all I intend to do. [...] I'm still working on my still life - and four weeks ago I thought it was almost done. I work on it daily from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon and it's still far from finished. It's while one is actually working that one realises repeatedly how much more powerful nature is in the end, and that one can only expect to arrive at halfway matching colours by painting something over and over again.’ It is best ‘to keep on searching [...]. Whenever I ask Roelofs and Tadema what manner of painting I should follow, they both say we can't say anything about that, we ourselves don't know how pictures get painted, now one way and then another. Always follow your intuition at the moment; painting won't take orders from anyone.’¹⁹

In the second letter, dated 2 November 1867, Mesdag reiterated the importance of painting from nature. He kept on making studies because he had not yet managed to produce a painting ‘that was really good. That's why I just go on painting pieces after nature. It can be a piece of ground, a flower, some grass, or some such thing; or something from my studio or a stairway landing. So whenever

19 7 January 1867; The Hague, Museum Mesdaf: ‘Ik heb nu van nabij werkelijk 3 groote meesters zien werken, namentlijk Bliders, Tadema en Roelofs, en alledrie moeten op hun werk nog even veel zitten te wroeten en te knoeijen als wij ook, ja zelfs dikwijls nog meer. [...] de rijkdom van toon en diepte alleen [kan] worden verkregen, door het door en door te werken.[...] De raad van Roelofs is bepaald dik schilderen, dat wil zeggen, goed in de verf en deze liefst gebruiken zonder olie of terpentijn[...]. Ik hoop, dat gij het goed begrijpt, niet dik van kleurm want juist hij bereikt alleen dat waas en de kracht van kleur, door het herhaald overschilderen. [...] Ik ben nog altijd met mijn stilleven bezig - en dacht reeds voor 4 weken, dat het bijna af was. [I]k werk er iederen dag aan van s'morgens 9 tot s'middags 4 en het is nu nog lang niet af. Juist onder het werken ziet men telkens weder, hoeveel krachtiger de natuur toch is, en dat men niet dan met om en om schilderen kan komen tot eenigzints bijkomende kleur. [...] wanneer ik bijv. eens vraag: welke manier van schilderen, moet ik volgen zegts Roelofs en Tadema beide. daar kunnen wij niets van zeggen wij weten het zelf niet hoe of de schilderijen klaar komen, nu eens zoo dan weder anders - Volg altijd uwe ingeving van het oogenblik; t'schilderen laat zich niet zeggen.’

[p. 61]

you're not working on your paintings, do what I do, for instance: from your window a view of the river A - of a ship or something, and I think you'll see for yourself how different it becomes and how powerful the colour gets.’²⁰

These last tips in particular can probably be traced to Alma-Tadema. Making a study of a corner of his atelier, including a detailed rendition of the fabrics and motifs, coincides with Alma-Tadema's approach. Laura and Nellie Epps, who later began painting under Alma-Tadema's watchful eye as well, worked in the same fashion (figs. 11-14). Whereas Mesdag had a view of the street in Brussels, Van Prooijen looked out on the water. The point was to reproduce a slice of carefully observed reality, framed by the window. The idea of painting a stairway landing certainly stems from Alma-Tadema, who had often done so when he was starting out.²¹ It was a good exercise not only in perspective, but also in rendering shadow and light (fig. 3).

Mesdag was also busily studying perspective, which he found ‘not so amusing’ but important. Though he had obviously made progress, he felt he still had a long way to go: ‘Meanwhile I'm gradually beginning to place greater demands on myself, which is why I'm less satisfied with my work. Yet I always enjoy working, and hope that with perseverance I'll someday learn how to make a good painting, which demands so much time that one really despairs of ever getting that far.’

The artist concluded his letter with good advice, revealing something of his business sense: ‘Work as much as possible with pleasure and good cheer. Try making drawings in the evening, and apply yourself: at least they are easier to sell than paintings.’²²

fig. 3
Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Interior with stairs, 1868, The Hague, Panorama Mesdag

20 2 November 1867; The Hague, Museum Mesdag: ‘[...] Daarom schilder ik maar altijd brokken botweg naar de natuur. t'Zij een brok grond, een bloem wat gras of zoo iets; of wel iets van mijn atelier [of] een trapportaal. - Wanneer gij nu eens niet aan uwe schilderijen werkt, doe dat dan ook, bijv: uit uw raam een gezicht op der A - op een schip of zoo iets en mij dunkt gij zult zelve zien welk ander werk en kracht aan kleur er in komt.’

21 Alma-Tadema painted four staircases between 1854 and 1856; see Vern G. Swanson. The biography and catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, London 1990, nos. 15, 24, 26 and 27.

22 Op. cit. (note 20): ‘Intusschen begin ik mijzelve ook langzamerhand hoogere eischen te stellen, reden waarom ik om mijn werk ook minder tevreden ben. - desnietegenstaande werk ik altijd met genot, en hoop door volharding nog eens te leeren een goed schilderij te maken, waartoe intusschen zooveel vereischt wordt dat men waarlijk wanhoopt het ooit zoo ver te brengen. [...] Werk zoo vel mogelijk met lust en opgewektheid. probeer eens zoo s'avonds teekeningen te maken - en leg u ook daarop toe: deze laten zich nog al verkoopen ten minste gemakkelijker als schilderijen.’

[p. 62]

Breakthrough

In the meantime, Alma-Tadema's star was rising. At first he painted scenes set in the Middle Ages and in ancient Egypt; later on he preferred Classical Antiquity. He received awards, including a gold medal at the Tentoonstelling van Levende Meesters in Amsterdam as early as 1862; in 1867 he was represented at the Exposition Universelle in Paris with 14 pictures, all but one of which belonged to his dealer Ernest Gambart. His prices rose commensurate with his fame. In 1868 he submitted two pictures to the Exposition de la Bienfaisance in Brussels, for which he asked high prices. Roelofs was rather disdainful, but perhaps also somewhat jealous: ‘Alma Tadema has also deigned to send a couple [of pictures], one that's been in Arti - not very good - and another bit of trash he threw some extra paint on for the occasion. His pretentiousness beats everything and his prices are absurd: 12òòò francs! and the little one for 3óóó!’²³

Alma-Tadema submitted a painting to the Paris Salon that same year: La siesta en Grèce (Madrid, Prado). By this time his fame was greater in Paris than in Holland or Belgium. Indeed he claimed that a French amateur who expressed interest in his pictures did so more out of a desire ‘to own one of my works than because he admired it.’ He received good notices and no less than four caricatures of his painting had already been made, ‘something that makes one famous. [...] Everyone knows me there.’ Yet he was dissatisfied with the head of the old man in his Salon painting: it seemed ‘to be any old man one might come across in the street. So I got a brush and spent a few mornings in the Louvre studying some ancient Greek heads.’²⁴

Mesdag, too, was gradually becoming an independent talent. By January 1869 things were apparently going so well for him that he was overdoing it in his father's eyes. This called for a bit of paternal advice: ‘Now that you're being successful you're on a slippery road. Ambition is absolutely necessary but can also get out of hand.’²⁵ Following a sojourn on the German island of Norderney, where he discovered the sea as a subject for painting, in the spring of 1869 Mesdag decided to settle in The Hague, in order to have his favourite motif close at hand.²⁶ His breakthrough came in 1870, when his Breakers in the North Sea (Wassenaar, Collection J. Poort) won a gold medal at the Paris Salon. Thereafter he devoted himself primarily to marine pieces and his brushwork became looser.

After the death of his wife Pauline in May 1869, Alma-Tadema did not do much more painting. His own health was poor and at the suggestion of his dealer Ernest Gambart, he went to London in December of that year for an operation. While he was there, it was through the English painter Ford Madox Brown that he met one of Brown's pupils, Laura Theresa Epps (1852-1909), and fell in love with her on the spot. The second time Alma-Tadema saw the young woman, he is said to have asked in his broken English: ‘Vy have I never seen any of your paintings? I know the work of both your sisters and dey are very goood [sic]!’ To which Laura replied, ‘You haven't seen any because I haven't done any! I am not a painter I am a musician.’ ‘I'm sure you be able to draw and paint,’ countered Alma-Tadema. ‘Vy not let me give you some lessons. I shall teach you how to paint!’²⁷ They married in 1871.

23 Letter to Mr P. VerLoren van Themaat, Brussels, 25 January 1868; The Hague, Gemeentearchief; published by Jeltes, op. cit. (note 8), p. 137: ‘Alma Tadema heeft goed gevonden er ook een paar te zenden Een dat in Arti geweest is - niet gelukkig en een ander klein vodje dat hij bij die gelegenheid wat heeft opgelapt. Hij heeft een pretentie, die alles te boven gaat en vraagt ridicule prijzen: 12òòò fr.!, voor het kleine 3óóó!!’ The pictures involved were, respectively, La lune de miel (Swanson, op cit. [note 21], no. 98?) and La sieste (ibid., no. 99), which were shown by the Société Néerlandaise de Bienfaisance: see H.H. [Henri Hijmans], Journal des Beaux-Arts (31 January 1868), p. 13. With thanks to Saskia de Bodt.

24 Alma-Tadema to Mesdag, Brussels, 8 June 1868; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 167. This letter is the only known evidence that Alma-Tadema was in Paris at that time and planning to live there; see Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), pp. 34-35. La siesta en Grèce (ibid., no. 101), is a large, elaborate version of the diminutive panel he had shown in Brussels (see note 23).

25 Klaas Mesdag to Hendrik and Sientje Mesdag, Groningen, 4 January 1869; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 173.

26 An additional reason for settling in The Hague was that Sam van Houten, Sientje's brother, had become a member of the Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer) that same spring. The Mesdags moved into the house next to his, which was empty; see Croiset, op. cit. (note 12), p. 435.

27 According to Sylvia Gosse; quoted in Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), p. 159.

[p. 63]

Before Alma-Tadema left Brussels for London he received an interesting request from the Home Secretary in The Hague. Thanks to a letter he wrote to Mesdag we are well informed about it, since he enclosed a copy of his answer to the minister. Though Alma-Tadema's letter is not dated, it must have been written in Brussels in May or June 1870. The Home Secretary had asked him to become director and professor (‘directeur 1^o Hoogleeraar’) at the Rijksacademie that was to be established in Amsterdam.²⁸ Alma-Tadema's refusal was somewhat hesitant: ‘Having pondered the matter for some time I must admit that it would be daring indeed for a young person such as myself, who is busy finding his way and thus still [has] little experience and only modest talent at his disposal, to place himself at the head of the art academy which officially must be considered the first of our country.’ To the copy of his reply to the minister he sent Mesdag he added: ‘I think it's important that people in Holland know what I have written, for my words could be misinterpreted. Therefore please keep the enclosed in case it is needed.’²⁹ His designation of Mesdag as his spokesman in Holland would seem to suggest a certain vanity on Alma-Tadema's part.

Despite his misgivings, it appears that Alma-Tadema was interviewed for the post nonetheless. On 2 July Mesdag informed a mutual friend, the Belgian painter Alfred Verwee, that Alma-Tadema had been in the Netherlands and that he could understand why he had declined the appointment.³⁰ We may assume that Alma-Tadema had no regrets about his decision to become a painter. In September 1870 he left for London once and for all, taking with him his two daughters and his sister Artje. A brilliant future lay ahead of him.³¹

28 See M. de Roever, ‘August Allebé (1838-1927), zijn leven, zijn loopbaan,’ in exhib. cat. Waarde Heer Allebé: Leven en werk van August Allebé, Haarlem (Teylers Museum), Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum) & Assen (Provinciaal Museum van Drenthe) 1988, p. 31 For more on art education in Holland at that time, see J. Reynaerts, ‘De jaren aan de Rijksacademie: Allebé als hoogleraar en directeur (1870-1906),’ in ibid., pp. 53-71 and idem ‘Van atelier naar academie. Schilders in opleiding 1850-1900,’ in exhib. cat. De schilders van Tachtig: Nederlandse schilderkunst 1880-1895, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh) 1991, pp. 88-107.

29 Van Houten archive, inv, no. 167: ‘Na veel wikken en wegen moet ik bekennen, dat het wel gewaagd zoude zijn voor een jong mensch als ik ben, die bezig is zijnen weg te banen en dus nog weinig ondervinding, daarbij slechts zwakke middelen tot zijne dienst heeft, zich aan het hoofd te stellen van het kunstonderwijs, dat officieel als het eerste van ons land moet worden beschouwd. [..] Ik houd er veel aan dat men in Holland wete wat ik geschreven heb want mijne woorden mogten valsch geinterpreteerd worden. [D]aarom gelieve nevengaande te bewaren voor bij gelegenheid.’

30 ‘Notre ami Tadema vous aura parlé de sa visite en Hollande; je regrette pas du tout pour lui qu'il a refusé le professorat à l'académie d'Amsterdam’; The Hague, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (hereafter RKD); published in Poort, op. cit. (note 3), p. 514. On 1 October 1870 Bastiaan de Poorter was appointed director. According to his ‘Necrologium,’ ‘It was only after Alma-Tadema had refused to accept the conditions under which the government had offered him the directorship that the choice fell to Mr de Poorter’; see Nederlandsche Kunstbode 2 (1880), no. 5, p 39. This also suggests there was further discussion.

31 Various reasons for his departure were given. Besides his love for Laura Epps the threat of the Franco-Prussian War has also been cited; see Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), p. 36. Much later Alma-Tadema himself gave another, obvious reason: ‘Simply because I believed that there would be a future for my art there’; see Anon., ‘Bij Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema,’ Algemeen Handelsblad, 9 January 1911 (the evening edition).

Overseas contacts

Although Alma-Tadema and Mesdag were now living at quite some distance from one another, the quantities of notes and letters that have survived show that they stayed in close touch. In the 1870s they saw one another regularly. During these visits they inevitably discussed artistic matters.

Together with his brother-in-law Sam van Houten, Mesdag had a house built on the Laan van Meerdervoort in The Hague, containing studios for both himself and his wife (fig. 4).³² It was in this house that Lawrence and Laura, who had recently married, stayed with them in August 1871.

As for Alma-Tadema, he bought Townshend House in London, near Regent's Park. His dealer Ernest Gambart introduced him to the artistic and cultural life of London. As he proudly wrote his friend Verwee even before settling in the capital, ‘Je connais déjà toute la clique préraphaëlite.’³³ Not only did the Alma-Tademas attend other people's soirees, they also organised their own ‘At Homes.’ Frequently attended by celebrated guests, these weekly gatherings were spent conversing, dining and concertising. The company was always international: ‘This afternoon (Monday) was our reception as usual, when I must speak so many languages one after the other that it sometimes comes out all jumbled up.’³⁴

32 In Brussels Sientje had also started painting; see Croiset, op. cit. (note 12), p. 433.

33 London, 26 January 1870; RKD. With thanks to Saskia de Bodt.

34 Alma-Tadema to Carel Vosmaer, London, 20 December 1880; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet: ‘Dezen namiddag (Maandag) als altijd was onze receptie en dan moet ik zoo vele talen doorelkander babbelen dat het wel eens blaauw uitkomt.’ See also Hanna Pennock, ‘Acquisition: Lourens Alma Tadema: Portrait of George Henschel at the piano,’ Van Gogh Museum Bulletin 8 (1993), no 1, pp 10-12.

[p. 64]

fig. 4
Mesdag in his studio, c. 1904, The Hague, Panorama Mesdag

Alma-Tadema's circle of friends included the literary scholar and archeologist Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888), who, like Mesdag, lived in The Hague.³⁵ The artist often turned to him for information about ancient details in his pictures. With the help of the opus numbers Alma-Tadema assigned to his paintings and watercolours, Vosmaer began to assemble a catalogue of his friend's oeuvre, but died in 1888 before he could finish the task. The unpublished manuscript is still a mine of information about Alma-Tadema's work.³⁶

On 26 July 1871, Alma-Tadema wrote Vosmaer that he planned to wed in three days' time. ‘On Saturday [29 July] I'm getting married, and will be in The Hague from 8 until 15 August to visit my friend Vosmaer, naturally.’³⁷ On this first stay with the Mesdags, however, the couple remained not a week but a month. Alma-Tadema did little work at the time; he was on his honeymoon, after all.³⁸ It was probably then that he painted the small portrait of his wife Laura that is still in the Museum Mesdag (fig. 9). In 1872 Mesdag paid a return visit to the Alma-Tademas, which was his first exposure to London.³⁹ Then in December 1872 Alma-Tadema and his wife arrived unexpectedly on the Mesdags' doorstep and stayed two days. In his friend's honour. Mesdag organised a dinner party to which he also invited Vosmaer: ‘Our friend Alma-Tadema has arrived here unexpectedly with his wife: he is staying until Saturday; would you and Madame do us the pleasure of coming to dine with us tomorrow afternoon at five?’⁴⁰

35 For more on Alma-Tadema and Vosmaer see the publications of F.L. Bastet, esp. ‘Carel Vosmaer en Lourens Alma Tadema,’ in exhib. cat. De verzameling van mr. Carel Vosmaer (1826-1888), Amsterdam (Rijksprentenkabinet) 1989, pp. 130-47.

36 Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet.

37 London, 26 July 1871; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet: ‘Zaturdag [29 juli 1871] ga ik trouwen en kom inden Haag van 8e August tot 15e natuurlijk vriend Vosmaer bezoeken.’ See also Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), p. 39. In the ‘copy book’ (copie boek) that Mesdag kept of his business correspondence, a letter to Pilgeram & Lefèvre of 30 July states that Alma-Tadema and his wife were expected to arrive several days hence; on 29 September he writes H. Wallis that Alma-Tadema is his guest for four (crossed out) several weeks. Of these copy books, five from the period 1871-75 are preserved in the archive of the Panorama Mesdag; see also Poort, op. cit. (note 3), pp. 53-56. On 7 November 1871 Mesdag also wrote to Verwee that Alma-Tadema had spent a month with them and that they had talked about art; RKD; see also Poort, op. cit. (note 3), p. 515. All these letters have recently been published: J. Poort, H.W. Mesdag: de Copieboeken of de Wording van de Haagse School, Wassenaar 1996.

38 That Alma-Tadema did indeed work during his visit in The Hague can be inferred from a note he made on a newspaper article about the prices fetched at an auction: ‘[...] on which I was working during my visit to The Hague in 1871’; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet.

39 As early as the spring of 1871 Mesdag had wanted to visit his cousin in London, but Alma-Tadema was then still busy moving house: Mesdag to Verwee, The Hague, 3 July 1871; see Poort, op. cit. (note 3), p. 515. The visit was postponed until May or June 1872; see the copy of a letter from Mesdag to Ch. Deschamps, 10 June 1872 and to Pilgeram & Lefèvre, n.d. [c. 1 August 1872]; The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag.

40 Thursday, 19 December 1872; The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief, Vosmaer archive, inv. no. 253. Mesdag probably met Vosmaer through Alma-Tadema. In a short letter of 4 April 1871 he invited Vosmaer to come look at two paintings in his studio (ibid.). Later on, Vosmaer would write about Mesdag's art and about his collection.

[p. 65]

It is not known whether the two couples visited one another in 1873. Two letters from Laura Tadema to Sientje Mesdag have been preserved, illustrated with composition sketches and a caricatural drawing (fig. 5).⁴¹ In the second she writes about Tad (as she called him), about his work and the fact that she and her sister Nellie had had three and a half hours of perspective lessons from him, using the base of a column. She also enthusiastically described the remodelling of their house: her studio had become ‘exceedingly pretty,’ furnished entirely in 17th-century Dutch style. The room had become available when her sister-in-law Artje, who had lived with them, ‘steamed off’ to Puerto Rico to get married. According to Alma-Tadema she was very content there; her letters fairly ‘burst the envelopes, there is so much happiness described in them.’⁴²

To judge from a letter Artje wrote her cousin Hendrik Willem Mesdag from Puerto Rico, the Mesdags were back in London in the spring of 1874. The same letter makes it clear that the Alma-Tademas thoroughly enjoyed their visits.⁴³ But Mesdag's motives for visiting London were not solely personal: he always tended to his commercial interests as well. On 20 January 1870 the artist wrote Verwee that he thought establishing oneself in England was important.⁴⁴ Though he started negotiations with London art dealers at this point, it was not until 1871 that Mesdag began doing serious business with them and that his work was regularly shown in galleries and exhibitions. On 30 July 1871 he wrote with evident self-assurance that he had no doubts about his future there.⁴⁵ ‘Visiting your exhibition I hope to see that my pictures look so well as you say’ was how he announced his arrival on more than one occasion;

fig. 5
Page from a letter from Laura Tadema-Epps to Sientje Mesdag-van Houten, 25-26 October 1873, The Hague, Algemeen Rijksarchief

41 N.d. [September 1873] and 25-26 October [1873] respectively; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 168. The first sketch is after a painting by herself, the small sketch below it after the painting Water pets by Alma-Tadema, which assumed its definitive form in 1874; the present location of the work is unknown; see Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), no. 171.

42 Alma-Tadema to Vosmaer, London, 14 September 1873 and 26 December 1873 respectively; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet.

43 22 July 1874; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 175: ‘We've heard from the Londoners about your visit to Townshend House, but I haven't been able to make out how long you stayed. Were things as they used to be, did you visit Hampton Court again, and did you have such a turbulent return in the evening? I still often think of the pleasant distraction your visit afforded us then’ (‘Van de Londoners vernamen we uw bezoek in Townshend House, 'k heb echter niet kunnen opmaken, hoe lang gij er vertoefd hebt. Was het daar nogal bij 't oude en hebt gij Hampton-Court ook weer bezocht en zulk een woelige terugreis gehadt, 's avonds? Ik denk nog vaak aan de aangename afleiding welke uw bezoek ons toen verschaft heeft’).

44 ‘J'espere d' exposer bientot deux ou trois tableaux à Londres. C'est pour moi pour le moment la grande question: d'être connu aussi en Angleterre’; RKD; see Poort, op. cit. (note 3), p. 512.

45 To Pilgeram & Lefèvre; The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag. Many of the copies of Mesdag's letters are addressed to art dealers in London. There is still no detailed investigation of his business contacts with the English capital.

[p. 66]

fig. 6
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Menu in honour of Mesdag's 70th birthday, 1901, The Hague, Panorama Mesdag (present location of the original drawing unknown)

the dealers in this case were Wallis & Son,⁴⁶ but there is a copy of a similar letter addressed to Pilgeram & Lefèvre, in which he gave Alma-Tadema's house as his London address.⁴⁷ His contacts with these dealers had begun already in 1870. In 1867 Henry Wallis had taken over Ernest Gambart's French Gallery, Pall Mall. Léon Lefèvre, a nephew of Gambart, and F.J. Pilgeram assumed the management of Gambart's King Street gallery in January 1870.⁴⁸ Most likely Alma-Tadema was instrumental in bringing his cousin into contact with these dealers, who after all were the successors of Gambart, his own promoter in England.

In the summer of 1874 the Alma-Tademas may have returned to The Hague again, en route to Germany.⁴⁹ And Mesdag appears to have been in London a year later for the spring exhibitions at the Wallis Gallery and the Royal Academy.⁵⁰ There is thus reason to believe that the friendship between the two artists was still alive. Regarding a debt Vosmaer owed him at one point, Alma-Tadema suggested that he ‘give it to Mesdag when you have the chance, since I always have something to settle with him.’⁵¹ On another visit to the continent in November 1875, the Alma-Tademas may have stopped in The Hague again; they were certainly there in early January 1877, for the wedding of a niece of Alma-Tadema's.⁵²

Not much correspondence has survived subsequent to 1877, but Alma-Tadema's letters to Vosmaer make it clear that he was still in regular contact with Mesdag. There are occasional indications that they saw one another from time to time, such as a postcard from Mesdag in 1879 announcing

46 Copy of a letter dated 14 March 1874; The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag.

47 29 April 1874; The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag.

48 See Maas, op. cit. (note 10), pp. 200 and 215.

49 Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), p. 46.

50 Copies of letters to Pilgeram & Lefèvre, 16 February 1875 and to H. Wallis & Son, 4 March 1875 respectively; The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag.

51 London, 31 March 1875; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet.

52 Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), pp. 49 and 51 respectively. Letter from Alma-Tadema to Vosmaer, London, 14 December 1876; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet. See also Bastet, op. cit. (note 35), p. 135. Swanson thinks that this niece was a daughter of Mesdag, but he had no other children. Her father may have been Sam van Houten, Mesdag's brother-in-law and neighbour.

[p. 67]

fig. 7
Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Laura Tadema-Epps, New Year's wishes for 1906 to the Mesdags, 1905, The Hague, Panorama Mesdag

that ‘This spring we took a trip to Brussels, Paris, London and saw a great many pictures ... including some really bad ones.’⁵³ That same year, in the autumn, Alma-Tadema was in The Hague, again on his way to Germany. Together with Mesdag, he attended an editorial meeting of De Nederlandsche Spectator; Vosmaer played an important role in this periodical.⁵⁴ During this visit, the two artists may have discussed an exhibition of work by members of the Hollandsche Teeken-Maatschappij at Grosvenor Gallery, which had been arranged through Alma-Tadema.⁵⁵

Though there is little evidence that Alma-Tadema and Mesdag were still in touch in the following decades, we may assume they were. It stands to reason that the contact would not have been as close as before: by this period, both artists had acquired international reputations, which must have placed considerable demands on their time. In 1885 Alma-Tadema moved to a larger house in Grove End Road, which he extensively remodelled to make even more luxurious. By 1888 he was ready to receive guests such as Mesdag and Vosmaer. ‘Here we are now at 17 Grove End Rd.,’ he wrote the latter in the spring. ‘Not yet completely installed, but enough to express the hope that you and your wife will honour us with a visit. Mesdag has already promised to come in May. May I therefore ask that you discuss the matter with them to make certain you are here at the same time, and that you provide us with some pleasant, memorable days enjoying art and friendship together?’⁵⁶ As it happened Vosmaer died three months later, before he could take Alma-Tadema up on his invitation; is not known whether Mesdag ever visited his cousin in his new house.

In 1901 Alma-Tadema served on the committee formed to organise the celebration of Mesdag's 70th birthday. For the menu he drew a portrait of his cousin wreathed by raised glasses (fig. 6).⁵⁷ In 1905 the Alma-Tademas sent a photograph of themselves with best wishes for the New Year (fig. 7), and three years later Laura wrote Sientje a long letter to thank her for ‘the Hague biscuits’ and bring her up to date on family news.⁵⁸ The last letters date from 1909 and 1911. In 1909, Laura Tadema sent Mesdag a letter of condolence

53 Card to Jan Kruseman at Soerabaya, The Hague, 30 May 1879; The Hague, Gemeentearchief: ‘Dit voorjaar maakten wij een uitstapje naar Brussel, Parijs, London en zagen een massa schilderijen ... waaronder veel slechte.’

54 Bastet, op. cit. (note 35), p. 137; see also p. 8. On p. 139 Bastet states that Alma-Tadema was with Vosmaer also in 1882.

55 Mesdag to David Bles, The Hague, 18 November 1879; The Hague, Gemeentearchief.

56 Alma-Tadema to Vosmaer, London, 12 March 1888; Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet: ‘Hier zijn we nu in 17 Grove End Rd. Noch niet geheel geinstalleerd maar toch genoegzaam om de wensch te uitem dat gij & vrouw ons met een bezoek zoudt vereeren. Mesdag heeft ons al beloofd in Mey te komen Mag ik u dus verzoeken het met hun zoo te overleggen dat gij niet dezelfde tijd zoudt kiezen & ons eenige aangename gewagvolle dagen te verschaffen gewijd aan gezamentlijk genot in kunst & vriendschap?’

57 He had borrowed the idea from a drawing in honour of himself, made when he was knighted in 1899. For an illustration, see Russell Ash, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, New York 1990. I am grateful to Teio Meendendorp for this information.

58 London, 28 December 1908; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 168.

[p. 68]

fig. 8
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Boating, 1868, The Hague, Museum Mesdag

following the death of his wife: ‘we did love her, and are sad that it is so many years since we saw her.’⁵⁹ Laura herself died that same year. Alma-Tadema wrote his cousin about her illness and about what a heavy blow her death had been to him: ‘precisely three weeks ago the best of all women passed away, for me at least that's what she was entirely.’⁶⁰ In an interview he gave in 1911, Alma-Tadema spoke of having visited Mesdag recently in The Hague.⁶¹ That was to be the last time they saw one another. Alma-Tadema died in 1912, Mesdag in 1915.

59 Letter to Sina van Houten (daughter of Sam van Houten), London, 21 March 1909; The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag.

60 London, 5 September 1909; The Hague, archive of the Panorama Mesdag.

61 Anon., op. cit. (note 31).

Mesdag and Alma-Tadema as collectors

Both Mesdag and Alma-Tadema were insatiable collectors. Their houses were richly furnished and Alma-Tadema in particular was fond of combining the most divergent styles. In 1877 he still had to think twice about purchasing two antique embroidered cushions: ‘10 guilders will buy a lot of potatoes. I mustn't spend so much on antiques.’⁶² At the time of his death, however, his collection of objets d'art and pictures comprised over 1,500 items.⁶³ Mesdag collected primarily Barbizon and Hague School

62 Alma-Tadema to Piet Stortenbeker, London, 13, 24 and 29 January 1877; The Hague, Gemeentearchief: ‘[...] voorf 10 koopt men nog al vrij wat aardappelen. Ik mag zoo veel geld niet voor antiquiteiten geven.’

63 Catalogue of the well-known and interesting collection of antique furniture and objêts d'art formed by the late Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, London (Hampton & Sons), 9-13, 16 June 1913.

[p. 69]

paintings. At its earliest stages his taste was apparently formed in part by his younger, but more worldly, cousin; as Anna Croiset put it: ‘there is reason to believe the friendship with Tadema and his family caused Mesdag's taste and artistic sense to develop and improve.’⁶⁴ In 1887 Mesdag's collection was so large that he had to build a museum beside his house on the Laan van Meerdervoort, which he later presented to the state: in 1903 it became the Rijksmuseum H.W. Mesdag.⁶⁵ After his death in 1915, his estate was sold.⁶⁶ Alma-Tadema and Mesdag also collected one another's work, as well as work by other members of their collective family.

As early as 1868, when Mesdag was still living in Brussels, he had his eye on Alma-Tadema's picture The education of the children of Clovis (private collection), which was completed in October of that year. Apparently he wrote his father that he wanted to buy it. Mesdag senior, himself an art collector, was not surprised: ‘that his new Clovis makes your mouth water I can easily imagine and understand, but I must advise you against such things.’ He also took the opportunity to give him the practical advice of shortening the lessons his son Klaas was receiving, so that ‘the Master will speak just as much but cost you less money.’⁶⁷ The father presumably objected to the purchase because Hendrik had bought another work by Alma-Tadema shortly before, which now belongs to the Museum Mesdag: Boating (fig. 8) is an anecdotal scene of Roman life, showing a young Roman drawing a skiff closer to the water's edge for his beloved. Alma-Tadema's first wife Pauline probably modelled for the Roman lady. The palette of this early work is still moderate, whereas that of his later pictures is brighter and more vibrant. Judging from an X-ray, the picture was painted over another, entirely different scene.

A second acquisition was the previously mentioned portrait of Laura Tadema, which Alma-Tadema presented to Sientje (fig. 9). The work dates from August 1871, while the Alma-Tademas were on their honeymoon. It was probably painted at the home of the Mesdags,

fig. 9
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The artist's wife, 1871, The Hague, Museum Mesdag

64 Croiset, op. cit. (note 12), p. 432: ‘[...] er is reden te gelooven, dat de vriendschappelijke omgang met Tadema en zijne familie op Mesdag's smaak en kunstzin ontwikkelend en veredelend werkte.’

65 P.N.H. Domela Nieuwenhuis, Catalogue des collections du Musée Mesdag XIX siècle: Ecoles étrangères, The Hague 1981 (1st ed. 1964) and E. van Schendel, Museum Mesdag: Nederlandse negentiende-eeuwse schilderijen, tekeningen en grafiek, The Hague 1975. A new museum catalogue has just been published: F. Leeman, H. Pennock, et al., Museum Mesdag: catalogue of paintings and drawings, Zwolle 1996. On the history of the museum and a selection from the collection see F. Leeman and H. Pennock, Mesdag Bulletin (Van Gogh Bulletin) 6 (1991), no. 4.

66 Sale catalogue: Lijst van schetsen etc., The Hague (Panorama Mesdag) 21-22 January 1916; Voorwerpen uit de collectie Mesdag, Amsterdam (F. Muller) 1916 (the sale was cancelled); The notable private collection of the famous modern Dutch artist the late Hendrik Willem Mesdag, New York (The American Art Galleries), 8-10 March 1920.

67 9 October 1868; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 173.

[p. 70]

fig. 10
Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Roman gardens, 1877, The Hague, Museum Mesdag

though the interior cannot be identified with theirs. In the months before and after their wedding he portrayed his wife several times, but eventually stopped for fear that he might ‘paint her out of my life.’⁶⁸ Despite her typically English demeanour, Laura often modelled for Alma-Tadema's Roman scenes. In this portrait she wears her hair up, à l'antique.

In 1877 Mesdag bought the narrow, horizontal Roman gardens, described in Alma-Tadema's list of opus numbers as ‘A pannel [sic] for mr. H.W. Mesdag's Studio door’ (fig. 10). Still mounted on the original English stretcher, the painting never served this particular purpose. Alma-Tadema used parts of the picture more than once in other contexts.⁶⁹ Roman gardens is a capriccio in which the painter combined various individual elements. The background, with statues of Hermes (Rome, Vatican Museum) and Hercules, and the fountain, were inspired by the Villa Borghese. Mesdag's estate also included a watercolour and the original drawing for the menu in honour of his 70th birthday (fig. 6), both by Alma-Tadema.

68 Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), p. 163.

69 See C. Cuypers, ‘The Question by Lourens Alma Tadema,’ Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboel 27 (1977), pp. 73-90.

Laura and Nellie Epps

Mesdag also owned several works by Laura Tadema. Laura and her sister Ellen (Nellie) Epps (1850-1929) belonged to a London family known as ‘Epps the chemists,’ in token of the fact that their grandfather, father and uncle were pioneers in the field of homeopathic medicine. Laura started out studying drawing under Ford Madox Brown, then took lessons from her future husband. She painted primarily flower still lifes and women and children in a style reminiscent of the 17th-century Dutch masters of the high-gloss finish, known as fijnschilders. Her predilection for this period is further evidenced by the 17th-century Dutch furnishing of her studio.

The mirror of 1872 (fig. 11) is one of Laura's early efforts. This finely painted still life contains a self-portrait at the easel seen as a reflection in the mirror. The work is essentially a double portrait, Alma-Tadema's presence being symbolised by the tulip. In another double portrait, this one by Alma-Tadema himself, dating from 1871 (Leeuwarden, Fries Museum), a tulip also serves as an allusion to his nationality, while the rose signifies Laura's English background. The still life with crocuses against a Japanese tray also dates from 1872 (fig. 12). The contents of Mesdag's residence that were sold at auction included two more paintings and a watercolour by Laura.

Like her sister, Nellie Epps also took lessons from Ford Madox Brown and then from Alma-Tadema. In 1875 she married the writer, poet and literary critic Edmund William Gosse, whom she had met at one of the Pre-Raphaelite

[p. 71]

fig. 11
Laura Tadema-Epps, The mirror, 1872, The Hague, Museum Mesdag

fig. 12
Laura Tadema-Epps, Still life, 1872, The Hague, Museum Mesdag

gatherings at Brown's house.⁷⁰ The organisation of their wedding was left entirely to the Alma-Tademas, to whom the couple remained close for the rest of their lives. Through Alma-Tadema, Gosse became acquainted with his Dutch colleague Carel Vosmaer.

Little is known about Nellie's painted oeuvre, which must have consisted primarily of landscapes. Mesdag owned two of her pictures. One of them - sold after his death and presently in private hands (fig. 13) - is a portrait of Laura Tadema emerging from her bathroom in Townshend House. Alma-Tadema's influence is manifest in the meticulous rendering of detail. The work gives us a glimpse of the sumptuous interior, with a large, 17th-century Dutch linen cupboard, rugs, flowered wallpaper, pictures and a basket of keys on the chair. Alma-Tadema had taken the cupboard with him when he left Belgium. Together with a matching bedstead, it figures in his A birthchamber, 17th century (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) of 1869.⁷¹ Alma-Tadema's collection of old Dutch cupboards was destroyed in the aforementioned explosion of a gunpowder ship in 1874. With what remained, he furnished the room in Townshend House known as the Panel Chamber.

70 A. Thwaite, Edmund Gosse: a literary landscape, London 1984, p. 148 ff. and Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), p. 36.

71 Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), no. 110.

[p. 72]

fig. 13
Nellie Gosse-Epps, Laura Tadema in Townshend House, c. 1873, Peize, Dr G. Overdiep

The picture by Nellie Epps in the Museum Mesdag was probably painted especially for Mesdag and his wife (fig. 14). It shows the Hall in Townshend House, a ‘salon in which two columns enhance the impression of a Pompeiian casa.’⁷² The precise rendering of every detail must have reminded Mesdag of his own early oeuvre, such as the Interior (fig. 1). Both of Alma-Tadema's daughters figure in the picture: Laurence appears behind her younger sister Anna (cf. fig. 16). That same year, 1873, Alma-Tadema painted their portrait (Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum; see also pp. 182, 194).

The picture seen in the background of Hall in Townshend House is an early work by Mesdag belonging to the series of streets he made under Alma-Tadema's guidance (fig. 15). Painted in 1867 or 1868, it hung at first in Alma-Tadema's studio.⁷³ Whether Alma-Tadema purchased the picture or received it as a gift is not known; after his death it was sold along with the rest of his estate.⁷⁴ Several authors have called it a curiosity from the first stage of Mesdag's career. According to Vosmaer, it was prompted by Alma-Tadema's advice ‘to study whatever he saw before him strictly and faithfully’ during the winter

72 C. Vosmaer, ‘Een en ander,’ Feuilleton; galley proof in Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet.

73 This painting is not included in Poort's oeuvre catalogue, op. cit. (note 3). It was reproduced in P.A.M. Boele van Hensbroek and G.H. Marius, Het Museum Mesdag en zijne stichters, Amsterdam n.d. [1910], p. 1.

74 Catalogue of the well-known and interesting collection, cit. (note 63), Study of a road, no. 651 (present location unknown).

[p. 73]

fig. 14
Nellie Gosse-Epps, Hall in Townshend House, 1873, The Hague, Museum Mesdag

[p. 74]

fig. 15
Hendrik Willem Mesdag, A street, 1867 or 1868, present location unknown

fig. 16
Lawrence Alma-Tadema with his two daughters Anna (left) and Laurence, c. 1910, The Hague, Panorama Mesdag

[p. 75]

months, when it was impossible to work outside.⁷⁵ But the most delightful anecdote about the canvas was recorded by Alma-Tadema himself, in a letter to Mesdag of 1868: ‘They've finally begun paving our street; a frightful racket, as you can imagine. [...] Speaking of streets, a few days ago while I was upstairs sitting [in my studio] and staring, and my eldest daughter was keeping me company, she said to me - Papa, est-ce qu'il n'y a donc jamais du monde qui passe là? and pointed to your street study.’⁷⁶

After Mesdag became famous, his fluent brushwork was associated with Roelofs's sketchlike manner more often than it was with Alma-Tadema's fine touch. Yet Alma-Tadema thought he should also receive some of the credit for Mesdag's success. As he put it rather acidly in 1909, ‘those [journals] always give such peculiar information that it's impossible to imagine where they get it. I remember that in one or two of those very favourable articles about Sientje [written after her death], you were always called a pupil of Roelofs.’⁷⁷ Alma-Tadema was right. Mesdag was indeed greatly indebted to his cousin, who not only taught him the foundations of art but also helped to form his taste. Moreover, it was through Alma-Tadema that Mesdag became known in England. Although contact between the two artists was most intensive around 1870, they were in fact lifelong friends.

75 He states also that it was painted from Mesdag's studio at 244, Rue Rogier; C. Vosmaer, Onie hedendaagsche schilders: Hendrik Willem Mesdag, Amsterdam 1882.

76 Brussels, 8 June 1868; Van Houten archive, inv. no. 167: ‘Men is eindelijk begonnen met onze straat te plaveyen eene verschrikkelijke herrie zoo als ligt te begrijpen valt. [...] A propos van straat gesproken voor een paar dagen toen ik boven zat te koekeloeren en mijne oudste dochter mij wat gezelschap hield zoo zeide zij mij - Papa est ce qu'il n'y a donc jamais du monde qui passe là? en ze wees mij je straat studie.’ Alma-Tadema's estate included a painting by Mesdag, entitled Shipping, and a watercolour by Sientje; see Catalogue of the well-known and interesting collection, cit. (note 63), nos. 573 and 678 respectively. In 1892 Alma-Tadema painted a view from a window which may have been inspired by Mesdag's Street: Swanson, op. cit. (note 21), no. 149.

77 Op. cit. (note 60): ‘die [journalen] geven de inlichtingen altijd zoo zonderling dat men niet begrijpt van waar ze de nodige inlichtingen weghalen. Ik herinner mij wel dat in een of twee van die hoogschattende artikelen over Sientje [na haar overlijden] gij altijd als leerling van Roelofs genoemd werd.’ Compare the interview of 1911, op. cit. (note 31): ‘Yes, at that time Mesdag [...] came to Brussels and wanted to meet Roelofs. Indeed it was with Roelofs that he worked initially, but before long he came to me. Three years later he won the gold medal at the Salon in Paris, and the Salon catalogue of 1888 therefore refers to him as my pupil.’