Signed lower right by Anna A-T: L. Alma Tadema AAT
On the vervo of the panel is affixed the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition 1913 label stating name of the artist, title of the work and name and address of owner

Provenance:
The Misses Alma-Tadema, London, 1912
Joseph H. Heil, New York, by 1962
Parke-Bernet, N.Y., 21 June 1978 [lot 195] for $1700
Private collection, N.Y.

Exhibited:
Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, 1913, #120
Robert Isaacson Callery, N.Y., April 1962, #19
Brigham Young University, Utah, February 1979, #18

Literature:
Alma-Tadema's letters to George Ebers dated March 26th and April 22 of 1980, P.S., Berlin
Royal Academy Exhibition catalogue, 1913, p.35;
Vern G. Swanson, The Unknown Tadema: A Study in Connoisseurship, Brigham Young University, Utah, 1979, cat. #18;
Vern Swanson, The Biography and Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, London; 1990, cat. # 340
I. G. Lovett, Empires Restored, Elysium Revisited, The Art of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Williamstowrn, Mass. 1993, p. 107, under “A Coign of Vantage”.

The present sketch of the vast Starnberger See in Bavaria, seen from a small cove guarded by two large, sculpted lions, was painted from the Ebers' garden at their summer home in Tutzing, just south of Munich. It was in May of 1890 that Alma-Tadema and his wife visited the Ebers to celebrate the latters' silver wedding anniversary. The artist had planned to use the view as a background for several pictures and took this opportunity to make the study.
He had earlier written to Ebers: "Do please have sunshine and clear atmosphere as I want to make a study of the Alps and the lake for a picture I have begun.'' (V. Swanson, cat. p. 441) The picture to which Alma-Tadema alluded was probably “The Kiss” of 1891.
The present study proved to be of great importance in Alma-Tadema's oeuvre and was used in many of his paintings in the 1890's, according to Vern Swanson, (V. Swanson, cat. p.442) including At the Close of a Joyful Day of 1894. But surely the most important work derived from this sketch is one of the artist's most famous, A Coign of Vantage of 1895.(V. Swanson, cat. #371). In this exceptional composition, the body of water has become the Mediterranean and one lion, here decorated with a garland of yellow flowers, is supported by a white marble pedestal on a terrace overlooking the sea. Three sumptuous ladies are intently watching below as the Roman fleet arrive. The view in the finished painting is dizzying, while the view across the wide, calm lake to the distant mountains in the present sketch is wonderfully peaceful.
It is interesting to note that a Coign of Vantage upon its completion in 1895 was sent to New York dealer M. Knoedler who quickly found an American buyer for it. Not until 1973 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition, Victorians in Togas, was it, one of Alma-Tadema's greatest works, publicly seen. (I. G. Lovett)