Inscribed on the back of the panel in Anna's hand:
Study by L. Alma Tadema painted in Rome in 1876 Exhibited at the Alma Tadema Memorial Exhibition at the Royal Academy Winter 1912 Presented for the Red Cross sale by Lawrence Alma Tadema, Anna Alma Tadema

Provenance:
The Misses Alma Tadema, London 1912;
British Red Cross Society 1915 (by gift)
Christie's Red Cross SaTe, April 22, 1915 (1427) for £23 '2s, sold to Mrs. James Couttes Michie, London
Messrs. Bill Henry, London; sale Christie's S. Kensington, Nov 1st, 1978 for £110; sold to Messrs. Nick Drummond, London
Sold to present owner, New York

Literature:
Illustrated on a portrait postcard of Alma-Tadema (author's coll.)
Royal Academy Winter Exhibition Catalogue, London, 1993 (144 or 145)
Art Prices Current, 1915
Vern G. Swanson, The Unknown Tadema: A Study in Connoisseurship (exhibition catalogue), Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 1979
Vern G. Swanson, The Biography and Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, London, 1990, cat.# 200, p. 188, illus.

Exhibited:
Memorial Exhibition at the Royal Academy, Winter 1913 (144 or 145)
The Unknown Tadema: A Study of Connoisseurship, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, February 5-23' 1979, #21

Note:
"This appears to be an oil sketch of the interior of the ancient Casa di Livia in Rome. Along the wall are two pieces of sculpture, represented by areas of untouched white canvas. The painting was probably mounted by Anna Alma-Tadema for the Red Cross auction in April 1915. At the Memorial Exhibition, it was displayed in a case containing sketches and drawings. (Vern Swanson, p. 188)
Painted in Rome 1n 1876, this appealing sketch could well have been the source or model for the Antique walls which appear in several finished paintings by the artist. See, in particular, A Hearty Welcome of 1878 in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. (Russell Ash, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, New York, 1989, pl. 8). Also known as A Roman Garden, this painting was inspired by a novel of 1834 entitled The Last Days of Pompeii. The canvas depicts a scene in a Pompeian courtyard in which the figures are modeled after Laura Alma-Tadema and her two step-daughters, Lawrence and Anna, as well as the painter himself.

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, 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 1895.3 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.