Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema painted The Coliseum in 1896 as a commission from Arthur Tooth & Sons. It was one of only seven paintings he executed that year and was his entry to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. In his art, Alma-Tadema created a type of Classical genre painting. Despite the passage of time between Antiquity and the Victorian era, Alma-Tadema saw a similarity between the people and customs of his own time and those of Ancient Rome. The Coliseum was painted in the great period of the British Empire and his patrons no doubt identified with the flattering notion of figures, not unlike themselves, being shown as the elite of an empire.

The Coliseum is a narrative painting which is based loosely on a passage from Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage:

And here the buss of eager nations ran
In murmur'd pity of loud-roared applause
As man was slaughtered by his fellow man,
Wherefore slaughtered? Wherefore, but because
Such were the bloody circus genial laws
The Imperial pleasure, Wherefore not?

The volumes of research compiled by scholars during the 19th Century made it possible for Alma-Tadema to be precise in all aspects of his presentation: Roman costuming, architeture, art and utensils. The vases depticted in The Coliseum derive from the design of a 5th Century ivory which Alma-Tadema artfully re-arranged to fit into a horizontal format. As he wrote in a letter dated 10-8-97 to Arthur Tooth & Sons, "I believe the flowers of the garland suffiencently well painted as to be recognized for daffodils which they were painted from. The vases are composed from Antique specimens and decorated with basreliefs having reference to the games performed in the Coliseum vis, stag hunting on one and wrestling on the other. The upper gallery of the Coliseum is decorated with statues of animals probably winners and contests of games given in the arena of the Coliseum and the lower gallery contains statues of athletes and wrestlers who represent contests in which they were victorious. Over the principle entrance is a quadridge with the victory & on each side of that arch is a statue of an emperor. Out of that arch comes the Consul and suite in palanquins preceeded by the traditional lictors carrying the Facies (bundles of reeds and one hatchet tied together as can be seen in the basrelief of the Arch of Titus and on several tombs of Consuls). The Arch of Constantine in the background shows that the scene took place in his reign or soon after. The mother on the balcony dressed in white, wears a tunica with sleeves (like the Christians wore in the painting of the Catacombs). The nurse in blue supposed to come from the provinces is still dressed in the older Roman fashion. The public leaving the Coliseum has in many places palanquins offered of which the greater part was hired like our cabs. This is all I can tell you about it and I trust that this information will satisfy your client who honors me by possessing one of my most important works."

Alma-Tadema was an acknowledged expert in archeology having personally excavated Roman ruins in Pompeii and visited sites throughout Europe. He kept a collection of photographs of ancient monuments and a record of the most famous works of the Ancients. In The Coliseum he reconstructs not only the buildings mentioned in his letter to Arthur Tooth & Sons, but also the Fountain of the Met Tudens in the distance. Moreover, the painting is executed in an almost photorealistic manner, suffused with color, to emphasize its historical verisimilitude.

At the time it was painted The Coliseum was hailed as a masterpiece by the critic F. G. Stephens who wrote about it in both the Anthenaeum and in a later pamphlet. It was also praised in a contemporary review as being "greater as a work of art than the Spring" (currently in the Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu.) These sentiments are shared by Vern Swanson who wrote, "the painting epitomizes all the strengths of Alma-Tadema's art and may rightfully be considered to be one of his best large pictures."

We are grateful to Professor Vern G. Swanson for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.

The lot will be accompanied by the original letter from Alma-Tadema to Arthrur Tooth & Sons dated 10-8-97 which we refer to in our catalogue note. It will also by accompanied by correspondence relating to its inclusion in the British section of the St. Louis Exhibition of 1904, on whose Art Committee the artist served.