Laura Theresa Alma Tadema
On this day in 1852, Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema was born. She was one of the leading painters of the English salon of her day. She was a student and the second wife of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. She specialized in highly sentimental domestic and genre scenes of women and children. She painted some classical subjects and landscapes akin to those of her husband, but in general her main influence was 17th-century Dutch art, which was a far less restrained influence in her work than his. She studied the works of Vermeer and de Hooch on visits to the Low Countries. The echo of their works can be seen in the painting we present today. : )
The Paris Salon in 1873 gave Alma-Tadema her first success in painting, and in 1878, at the Paris International Exhibition, she was one of only two English women artists exhibited. Her other venues included the Royal Academy (from 1873), the Grosvenor Gallery, and others in London. Alma-Tadema also had occasional work as an illustrator, particularly for The English Illustrated Magazine.
P.S. Compare this lovely depiction of a domestic scene with Vermeer's "desperate housewives," which you will find here. :-D