Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A.

Arthur Tooth & Sons, London, 1894 (commissioned from the artist in 1894)
William S. Kimball, Rochester, New York (acquired from the above, 1895)
Thence by descent

London, The New Gallery, 1894, no. 168
Birmingham, The Royal Society of Artists, 31st Spring Exhibition, 1896, no. 674

Magazine of Art, 1894, p. 306
Robert de la Sizeranne, English Contemporary Art, n.p. 1898, p. 166
Helen Zimmern, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, R.A., London 1902, p. 72
Percy Cross Standing, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, O.M., R.A., London, 1905, p. 99
Rudolf Dirks, "The Later Works of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema," Art Journal, Christmas Supplement, 1910, p. 32
Vern G. Swanson, Alma-Tadema: The Painter of the Victorian Vision of the Ancient World, London, 1977, p. 140
Vern G. Swanson, The Biography and Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, London, 1990, pp 249-50, no. 362, the engraving illustrated p. 452

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work on panel is as it should be. The panel is unreinforced on the reverse. The paint layer is clean and lightly varnished. There are no retouches, and the fine details throughout are in perfect condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Painted in May, 1894, The Benediction left Alma Tadema’s studio only two months before the completion of Spring, now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, where it is among the museum’s most popular works of art. Alma-Tadema spent over two years on Spring, so it is inevitable that he was working on both paintings at the same time, indulging the Victorian fascination with processionals and ancient Rome. The stylistic and compositional relationship between Spring and The Benediction is immediately evident as both have such an elongated verticality, with varied elements seemingly stacked on top of one another and packed with well-researched historic detail from corner to corner. Every costume, expression, flower and statue is considered. As his friend and sometimes journalist Ellen Gosse remarked: “There can be no doubt that Mr. Alma Tadema is so fascinated by the beauty of detail and of surface painting, and so accomplished in rendering it… attention may be called to the fact that his elaborately veined and finished marbles are often the plainest parts of his pictures – wherein perhaps lies in some measure the secret of his great charm” (as quoted in Louise Lippincott, Lawrence Alma Tadema: Spring, Malibu, 1990, p. 73).

While Spring presents an epic parade on a grand scale, The Benediction is an intimate view into a sacred ritual. In both works, however, Alma-Tadema creates a convincing, albeit fantastic, image of antiquity by sourcing art, architecture and artifacts in public collections or from photographs and objets in his own collection. In the present work, the silver box held by the bride is almost certainly a reference to the Projecta Casket (British Museum, London), dating from the late Roman period, circa 360 AD. The zodiacal circlet behind the priestess is based on a sculpture by George Simmonds, and is a theme which reappears in other paintings, notably in the round window frame of A Secret (1887, Art Gallery and Museums and the Royal Pavillion, Brighton) and the medallions in The Favourite Poet (1888, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight). This circlet is supported by standing figures reminiscent of the British Museum’s collection of classical Greek mirror stands, featuring votives of the love goddess Aphrodite. Even the riveted brass steps that led to Alma Tadema’s own studio serve here as the model for the approach to the priestess’ altar.

The Benediction was purchased in 1895 by William S. Kimball, an American businessman who made his fortune processing tobacco in Rochester New York, living in the city’s tony Corn Hill area. His magnificent home was legendary and referred to locally as “Kimball’s Castle”. Local historian Michael Leavy confirms that “the Grandest Mansion of all was Kimball’s Castle… one of only two homes in the world designed by Louis Tiffany, it was built in 1882… the house was nationally known, having been featured in many architectural publications of the day” (Michael Leavy, Rochester’s Corn Hill: The Historic Third Ward, 2003, p. 84). This thirty-room mansion, a replica of a Swiss chalet, was renowned for its greenhouse where one of the country’s most impressive collection of orchids was cultuivated, as well as the gallery which housed the Kimball family’s impressive art collection. The home was demolished in the mid-twentieth century, and while some elements such as tiffany windows were preserved (University of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery), much of its contents are lost.