Lot Essay
This interesting drawing was executed at the same time as the unfinished and now lost picture, Plato addressing his Disciples, (Swanson, op. cit., p. 226, no. 303) and shares a similar theme. The drawing was used as a preparatory study for A Reading from Homer (Swanson, op. cit., p. 228, no. 305), but as an inscription on the back of the sheet testifies, the client, Henry Marquand, for whom Charles Deschamps was acting as agent, was unhappy with the composition and asked Alma-Tadema to make several revisions. (The final composition differs markedly from our study). The drawing was finally used as the basis for a later oil of 1891 Love's Votaries (Swanson, op. cit. p. 244, no. 347).
Charles Deschamps was the nephew and assistant of the dealer Ernest Gambart and a close friend of Alma-Tadema. Henry Marquand was a well known New York collector who also commissioned paintings from Lord Leighton.
We are grateful to Dr. Vern Grosvenor Swanson of the Springville Museum, Utah, for his help in preparing this entry.
Charles Deschamps was the nephew and assistant of the dealer Ernest Gambart and a close friend of Alma-Tadema. Henry Marquand was a well known New York collector who also commissioned paintings from Lord Leighton.
We are grateful to Dr. Vern Grosvenor Swanson of the Springville Museum, Utah, for his help in preparing this entry.