The Sollicitation – Lawrence Alma-Tadema, c. 1883
€1.850
“The Sollicitation”, steel engraving made approx. 1883 by Leopold Löwenstamm after the design of Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Coloured by a later hand. Size (scene): 22 x 35,3 (frame: 50 x 59 cm.)
This composition was a particular favourite of the artist himself, his close friends, and the wider public: a young woman sits upright on a marble bench, listening to the entreaties of a young man reclining beside her. The man adopts a submissive posture and gazes up at the woman. At the same time, his pose—firmly settled on the bench with his feet crossed—reveals a certain determination: we sense that he will not abandon his plea until the woman yields.
Throughout his career, Alma-Tadema produced, in a steady stream, more than two dozen scenes on the theme of courtship. These paintings, mostly of modest size, must have constituted a consistently marketable product for the artist. One of the works with a classically restrained composition was The Solicitation.
The proposal was a cherished theme in many Victorian novels and genre paintings. The ever-hopeful and respectful posture of the ‘pleading’ man, and the apparent—or perhaps feigned—indecision of the woman align more closely with the rituals of the Victorian middle class than with the customs of Roman patricians, whose marriages were typically arranged.
There is a painting by Alma-Tadema which depicts Leopold Löwenstamm creating an engraving of one of Alma-Tadea’s courtship scenes.
Price: Euro 1.850,- (incl. frame)
