Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1936-1912) was long neglected, but now some of his paintings are auctioned for tens of millions of dollars. I wrote about this in 2011 and discussed his miniaturist aspect here.
He painted both large and small works, but the small ones can fascinate due to the skill used to render small faces and tiny details so convincingly.
I recently came across one such painting in San Francisco's Legion of Honor museum. It is "A Coign of Vantage" (1895). The title might be translated as "A Vantage Nook" -- the word "Coign" referring to a corner. It's 64 cm (25.2 inches) high and 44.5 cm (17.5 inches) wide. This is small, but hardly tiny. Even so, the subjects depicted take up little space: a head in profile is about 5 cm (2 inches) across.
Below are an establishment photo and detail photo featuring the ladies' faces. Click on the images to enlarge considerably (if your screen is large).
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He painted both large and small works, but the small ones can fascinate due to the skill used to render small faces and tiny details so convincingly.
I recently came across one such painting in San Francisco's Legion of Honor museum. It is "A Coign of Vantage" (1895). The title might be translated as "A Vantage Nook" -- the word "Coign" referring to a corner. It's 64 cm (25.2 inches) high and 44.5 cm (17.5 inches) wide. This is small, but hardly tiny. Even so, the subjects depicted take up little space: a head in profile is about 5 cm (2 inches) across.
Below are an establishment photo and detail photo featuring the ladies' faces. Click on the images to enlarge considerably (if your screen is large).
