Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema (British, 1852–1909), Battledore and Shuttlecock, c. 1887 Oil on canvas, 36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm) Museum purchase, The Dorothy Johnston Towne (Class of 1923) Fund 2016.113

Battledore and Shuttlecock is the first work by Lady Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema in the Davis collections. An important 19^th-century female artist, she found inspiration in Dutch genre scenes from the 17^th century in style and composition. Her focus on women and children in domestic interiors was a subject often depicted by accomplished women artists of the Victorian era. Laura was the second wife of the Dutch-born painter, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who had established his reputation in England with genre scenes that incorporated his interest in archaeology and Greco-Roman antiquity.  She became his student in 1870 and they married the following year. She had a successful career as a painter, and enjoyed great popularity in Europe as well as Britain. In 1873 she debuted work at both the Salon in Paris as well as the Royal Academy in London.

The room depicted in Battledore and Shuttlecock is the great entrance hall of the Alma-Tadema residence at St. John’s Wood in northwest London, which Lawrence purchased from James Tissot in 1883 and extensively renovated.  As depicted on the canvas, the tiles used for the floor in the entrance hall were custom-made and bear the family monogram, “L.A.T.” This painting was exhibited in the Art Gallery of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.