drawing
- Museum number
- 1954,0508.33
- Description
-
An Old Story; a male and female sitting on stone seat, beyond at right trees behind wall, and in background sea. 1883
Watercolour
- Production date
- 1883
- Dimensions
-
Height: 227 millimetres
-
Width: 465 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This is Opus CCLVIII of Alma Tadema's oeuvre, and was first exhibited at the winter exhibition of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1883-4. Swanson (1990, p.222) refers to this work as 'A Declaration'. It was engraved for 'The Art Journal' with this title, but was later engraved for 'The Graphic' in 1893 under the title used here (see 2007,7017.2). It bears some similarity to the oil painting 'Expectations' of 1885 (Swanson 304) and in particular 'Amo te ama me' of 1881 (Swanson 273; Fries Museum, Leeuwarden). The watercolour can be seen in Alma-Tadema's 1883 portrait of the etcher Leopold Löwenstam (1842-1898) (Swanson 289) who reproduced many of his paintings. It may be presumed then that Löwenstam made a print after this watercolour.
This watercolour was reproduced as a photogravure in F.G.Stephens (Ed), 1895, 'Laurence Alma Tadema RA: A Sketch of his life and work' as plate XIV (1895-10-8-1 [14]), published by the Berlin Photographic Company, London. The Department's copy of this publication is placed 167.b.10.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1883/4, London, Royal Watercolour Society, 'Winter Exhibition', no.349
1969, BM, 'Royal Academy Draughtsmen 1769-1969', no.156
1996/7 Nov-Mar, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, 'Lawrence Alma-Tadema'
1997, Mar-Jun, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Alma-Tadema, no.62
- Acquisition date
- 1954
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1954,0508.33
