Lot Essay
Professor Vern Swanson has discussed the painting as follows in his recent catalogue raisonné of Alma-Tadema's work:
'Cleopatra, seductively ensconed on her barge, is about to receive Mark Anthony in the waters off Alexandria. The episode is from Shakespeare's play, Anthony and Cleopatra (II.ii). Less than a year earlier Alma-Tadema had painted Ludwig Barnay as Mark Anthony (No 276, 1882), probably begun when Barnay was playing at the Drury Lane Theatre in late 1881. The Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra might also owe its origins to the same theatrical engagement. It was begun early in 1882 but was not Alma-Tadema's paramount painting project until about May of that year. In a letter to Ebers in November, he wrote: "The picture that troubles me most just now is still Cleopatra and Marc Anthony that is their meeting in Alexandria water for the first time after Tarsus, both [are] in boats and the Roman trireme in the background besides blue sky and sea, I hope to have it finished by the end of the month."
The picture is typical of Alma-Tadema's mixing of Egypto-Roman genre. The hieroglyphic cartouche on the boat translates 'Mistress of Two-Lands, Cleo'. She holds a crook and flail, symbols of her queenship. Her throne is decorated with a pair of carved baboons, which represent Thoth, god of writing and thought. Bulgakov assures us that the head of Cleopatra was modelled after the portrait bust of Helen Zimmern's mother, Bernice. According to Raven, the idea of combining a chapel with Hathor columns and a ship was borrowed from Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's 1837 book on Egyptian antiquities.'
The artist had already painted two half-length single figures of Cleopatra, similar in pose to the figure in our picture; one, dating from 1875, is now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Swanson, no.184); the other, painted two years later, is in the Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand (Swanson, no.223).
'Cleopatra, seductively ensconed on her barge, is about to receive Mark Anthony in the waters off Alexandria. The episode is from Shakespeare's play, Anthony and Cleopatra (II.ii). Less than a year earlier Alma-Tadema had painted Ludwig Barnay as Mark Anthony (No 276, 1882), probably begun when Barnay was playing at the Drury Lane Theatre in late 1881. The Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra might also owe its origins to the same theatrical engagement. It was begun early in 1882 but was not Alma-Tadema's paramount painting project until about May of that year. In a letter to Ebers in November, he wrote: "The picture that troubles me most just now is still Cleopatra and Marc Anthony that is their meeting in Alexandria water for the first time after Tarsus, both [are] in boats and the Roman trireme in the background besides blue sky and sea, I hope to have it finished by the end of the month."
The picture is typical of Alma-Tadema's mixing of Egypto-Roman genre. The hieroglyphic cartouche on the boat translates 'Mistress of Two-Lands, Cleo'. She holds a crook and flail, symbols of her queenship. Her throne is decorated with a pair of carved baboons, which represent Thoth, god of writing and thought. Bulgakov assures us that the head of Cleopatra was modelled after the portrait bust of Helen Zimmern's mother, Bernice. According to Raven, the idea of combining a chapel with Hathor columns and a ship was borrowed from Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's 1837 book on Egyptian antiquities.'
The artist had already painted two half-length single figures of Cleopatra, similar in pose to the figure in our picture; one, dating from 1875, is now in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (Swanson, no.184); the other, painted two years later, is in the Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand (Swanson, no.223).