Two competing women seated by a marble balustrade each very pensive. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, OM, RA (born Lourens Alma Tadema; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter of special British denizenship. Born in Dronrijp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there. A classical-subject painter, he became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors or against a backdrop of dazzling blue Mediterranean Sea and sky.