Spring – Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1879

“Spring“, also known as “Green on the Fields” or as “In the Gardens of the Villa Borghese“. Steel engraving made in 1879 by Auguste Blanchard after the painting (Opus CLXXV) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Signed in pencil by both Blanchard and Alma-Tadema. Coloured by a later hand. Size (image): 33 x 13.5 cm (frame: 59 x 37 cm).

This work is part of a series depicting the four seasons. In Spring, young women gather baskets full of flowers. A girl in a faded tunic stands in a field of anemones, dreamily gazing at a single red poppy. The scene could be set in the gardens of the Villa Borghese or Villa Pamphili. The reviewer for the Royal Academy described the painting as follows:

“Young Roman maidens gathering flowers for the feast to celebrate the opening year. The flowers, that thickly cover the ground like our daisies and buttercups, are the star anemone, which attracts the attention of travellers to the Eternal City. The principal figure is a tall girl in a pale dress making, as far as the painter’s part of the work goes, perhaps the most lovely picture of the four.”

The painting after which the engraving was made hung until 1944 in the Schlesisches Museum für bildende Künste in Breslau (now the Polish city of Wrocław), but was lost during the Battle of Breslau. As such, this print represents the closest approximation of Alma-Tadema’s original work.

Price: Euro 1.750,- (incl. frame)