Awash in Victorian Romance and Classicism!
“The Victorian painters are enjoying a posthumous comeback and one of the more famous of these elegant painters was Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Exceedingly popular in his time, the modern, reductionist movements of the post-Freud 20th Century brushed his work under the rug – except for those collectors and lovers of the human figure who refused to allow the body to be cubed, flattened, distorted, and abstracted.

Now with the return of the appreciation of the human form Alma-Tadema’s paintings are enjoying a resurgence of popularity. Russell Ash certainly gives us reason to see why in this lavishly illustrated, beautiful book filled to overflowing with complete paintings and fragments or details of perfect ladies languishing in flora and classical vistas. Paintings that once were labelled as ‘corny’ are now being appreciated as suggestions of what made the Victorian Era unique.

Ash writes well and thoughtfully minimizes written word space for the flow of the pictorial value of the book. This is simply a lovely volume honouring a misunderstood and in the past under appreciated artist.”

Fantastic Full Page Reproductions!
“This book is filled with full page reproductions of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s paintings. It also has an interesting bio with pictures of his home, studio, and himself. I’ve been looking everywhere for a great book on Alma-Tadema and I believe this is the one. Besides reading about a painter’s life, I think it is very important that we see colour reproductions of the painter’s work, and this book does it very well. I hate books with 4x4 black and white images of an artist’s paintings, its useless. I highly recommend this book for lovers of Victorian art and Alma-Tadema. I recently went to the Getty Museum and saw Alma-Tadema’s Spring and it looks exactly how it appears in the book. The full page colour plates are exact reproductions of his paintings, unlike the newer book on Alma-Tadema published by Phaidon whose reproductions have been altered and all appear saturated with blue hues. Anyways…get this book if you can only get one book on Alma-Tadema because it us the best.”

Lovely Art – Splendid Work
“If you love Victorian painting of scenes of antiquity (Greece/Rome) then check out this beautiful book. A short bio on the artist is very interesting and the full-sized plates are reproduced in excellent detail and glorious colour. No ‘dup-ey’ reproductions here! An added bonus: Each plate comes with a descriptive page which describes the painting and what it depicts – a major plus. Heartily recommended to fans of the genre…or anyone else who loves beautiful artwork masterfully portrayed.”

“If you are an art lover, a collector of large format books of painters, even the 19th century academic styles, this is a good one for you.”

“The colour plates included are of Tadema’s most popular pieces. The size and brilliance of the plates in this book are beautifully presented. At this time, there isn’t a better value book available of this incredible artist’s work.”

“Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema is very well-organized, and Russell Ash provides informative insight into Alma-Tadema’s life and the substance of his paintings. Each plate is accompanied by an informative vignette which further enhances the effect of each beautiful piece.”

“This book contains beautiful pictures of ancient Greek and Roman women (and some men) in classical surroundings. This English-Dutch painter (born in the nineteenth century) shows much detail and attention with beauty and the realistic lines of marble. Each picture is a joy to view. I highly recommend this!“