Have you ever seen the painting Spring by the artist? It is a riot of flowers. It is a procession of joy. It is one of the most optimistic images ever created.
But for the legacy of its creator, there was no spring. There was only a long, hard winter.
For five decades—from the 1920s to the 1970s—the world forgot him.
The Basement Years
This period is known as the "Basement Years."
During this time, having a spring Lawrence Alma Tadema print on your wall was social suicide. It marked you as old-fashioned, tasteless, and probably ignorant.
The physical destruction of his legacy was heartbreaking.
- The Finding of Moses, his masterpiece, was reportedly found in an alleyway, stripped of its frame.
- The contents of his famous library were scattered.
- His house, Casa Tadema, was converted into flats, the aluminum ceiling torn down.
Museums deaccessioned his works by the dozen. They were "unfashionable," which in the art world is a death sentence.
The Secret Keepers
But beauty is resilient. Even in the deep freeze of modernism, there were glowing embers.
Not everyone forgot. There were quiet collectors who still looked at a spring Lawrence Alma Tadema and felt joy.
And surprisingly, the flame was kept alive by Hollywood.
Cecil B. DeMille. William Wyler. The directors of the great epic films of the 20th century (The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur) never stopped looking at Tadema. They knew that when you wanted to show the grandeur of Rome, you didn't look at the ruins; you looked at the paintings.
They used his work as storyboards. They projected his vision onto the silver screen to millions of people who had never heard his name.
The Thaw
The winter could not last forever.
Cycles turn. Tastes change. By the 1960s, the harshness of Brutalism and Abstract Expressionism began to wear thin. People started to crave narrative again. They started to crave skill.
Just like the procession in that famous spring Lawrence Alma Tadema masterpiece, the crowds eventually returned. They brushed off the dust. They looked at the marble. And they realized that while the world had changed, the beauty had not aged a day.
