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Lot Essay
The drawing depicts the lower portion of A Favourite Custom (op CCCXCI, April 1909, Tate Britain). To the right a girl splashes water on her companion to the left. Her companion is also in chest-deep water. She tries to defend herself and the scarf which protects her hair from getting wet.
The custom of public bathing in Roman society surpassed that of the games, especially among the aristocracy. The thermae depicted by Alma-Tadema in A Favourite custom portrays a calidarium in the foreground with an apodyterium (dressing-room) behind. The Roman bath was a favourite theme of Alma-Tadema. He treated it at least seventeen times, ending with Splashing. Of the painting the art critic Walter Pach (1883-1958) once remarked, 'Its narrative content hints at a strange transition from Victorian opulence to risqué Edwardian humor.' In a letter to the Royal Academy, Tadema, who had not quite completed the picture by Sending-in Day, requested the use of a separate room on their premises on Varnishing Days to finish it off. Since Alma-Tadema had missed the 1907 R.A. Summer Exhibition he was anxious to have a painting ready in 1909.
During this period, Tadema often drew fairly finished drawings after sections of his major oils for reproduction purposes. This, and many similar were commissioned by Pall Mall Magazine, including Geta and his Sister (op CCCLXXXI, 1907) and Principal figure of "The Voice of Spring" (op CCCXCVIII, 1910).
The custom of public bathing in Roman society surpassed that of the games, especially among the aristocracy. The thermae depicted by Alma-Tadema in A Favourite custom portrays a calidarium in the foreground with an apodyterium (dressing-room) behind. The Roman bath was a favourite theme of Alma-Tadema. He treated it at least seventeen times, ending with Splashing. Of the painting the art critic Walter Pach (1883-1958) once remarked, 'Its narrative content hints at a strange transition from Victorian opulence to risqué Edwardian humor.' In a letter to the Royal Academy, Tadema, who had not quite completed the picture by Sending-in Day, requested the use of a separate room on their premises on Varnishing Days to finish it off. Since Alma-Tadema had missed the 1907 R.A. Summer Exhibition he was anxious to have a painting ready in 1909.
During this period, Tadema often drew fairly finished drawings after sections of his major oils for reproduction purposes. This, and many similar were commissioned by Pall Mall Magazine, including Geta and his Sister (op CCCLXXXI, 1907) and Principal figure of "The Voice of Spring" (op CCCXCVIII, 1910).