From the Firehills of Fairlight, Hastings

Details

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., RA. (1836-1912)
From the Firehills of Fairlight, Hastings
signed and inscribed 'L Alma Tadema. M^rs F Moscheles.'
oil on canvas laid down on panel
6¾ x 10 in. (17 x 25.5 cm.)

Provenance

Mrs Felix Moscheles.

Literature

Letter from the artist to F.G. Stephens, (28 August 1877), Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Vern Grosvenor Swanson, The Biography and Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1990, p. 197, no. 220.

Exhibited

London, Grosvenor Gallery, The Works of L. Alma Tadema, Winter 1882-3, no. 243.

Lot Essay

Alma-Tadema and his family spent much of August 1877 at The Rocklands, Ecclesbourne, Hastings. This view of gorsefields overlooking the English Channel was painted nearby, probably towards the end of their stay. In a letter to F.G. Stephens of 29 August, Alma-Tadema recorded how 'Rye and Winchelsea especially pleased us very much', but that he was now anxious to return to Townsend House in London to continue his 'painting factory'.

The painting was given to the wife of Alma-Tadema's old friend Felix Stone Moscheles, a successful portrait and genre painter, with whom he had studied at the Antwerp Academy alongside George du Maurier.

We are grateful to Dr. Vern Grosvenor Swanson of the Springville Museum of Art, Utah, for his help in preparing this entry.

More from Victorian Pictures

View All