Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema is perhaps best known for his beautiful and nostalgic representations of ancient Greece and Rome. In these paintings of the ancient world, the past is revived and given new life - usually with a distinctly Victorian flair. For Alma-Tadema was a great Victorian painter, first and foremost. He was in many ways a man of his time who just happened to prefer to paint his pretty Victorian ladies dressed in togas and Greek garments.

Indeed, the artist excelled at depicting amazingly evocative scenes that recall the ancient world in a wonderfully detailed manner. Many of his images, however, have a certain quality, defined by some art historians as a particularly Victorian sense of nostalgia or wistful longing for a bygone Golden Age. In works such as Silver Favourites, Unconscious Rivals, Between Hope and Fear, and Coign of Vantage, Alma-Tadema creates a mood that expresses this particularly Victorian sentimental desire to return to a simpler time.

Ultimately, it is for you to decide what you think about Alma-Tadema's paintings. Choose from one of the links above, and you can explore some selected works by this Nineteenth century master.