Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, and trained at the Royal Academy of Antwerp, Belgium, he settled in London, England in 1870 and spent the rest of his life there.

A painter of mostly classical subjects, 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.

De Taeye’s greatest influence on his young pupil was his interest in ancient civilisations, particularly the Egyptians, first displayed in The Dying Cleopatra, begun in 1859 but later destroyed by the artist, and The Sad Father or The Unfavourable Oracle (Opus X), painted in 1858.

Another section of The Sad Father was modified by the artist ten years later, in 1869, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1871 under the title The Grand Chamberlain to Sesostris the Great.

As the artist's contemporary biographer Percy Cross Standing noted of Lawrence Alma-Tadema's early paintings of Egyptian subjects in particular, “So careful at all times about detail, he took extraordinary care in the preparation of his preliminary sketches for these pictures.” When asked why he had chosen to paint Egyptian themes, Alma-Tadema said: “Where else should I have begun as soon as I had become acquainted with the life of the ancients?

The first thing a child learns of ancient history is about the court of Pharaoh; and if we go back to the source of art and science, must we not return to Egypt?”[6] Several of his early Egyptian paintings contain precise depictions of objects and settings, which reflect the artist's close study of an important reference book of his era: Sir John Gardner Wilkinson's “The Manners and Customs of Ancient Egyptians”, published in 1837.

[8] Alma-Tadema related that although Leys thought the completed painting better than he had expected, he was critical of the treatment of marble, which he compared to cheese.

Despite any reproaches from his master, The Education of the Children of Clovis was well received by critics and artists alike and was eventually purchased and subsequently given to King Leopold of Belgium.

There he met Geremia Discanno, an Italian painter who had been commissioned by archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli to reproduce the brightly painted frescoes being uncovered in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum before they faded from exposure.

The dealer, recognising at once the unusual gifts of the young painter, gave him an order for twenty-four pictures and arranged for three of Tadema's paintings to be shown in London.

His infatuation with Laura Epps played a great part in his relocation to England and in addition Gambart felt that the move would be advantageous to the artist's career.

Having always had a great predilection for London, the only place where, up till then my work had met with buyers, I decided to leave the continent and go to settle in England, where I have found a true home."

Laura, under her married name, also won a high reputation as an artist, and appears in numerous of Alma-Tadema's canvases after their marriage (The Women of Amphissa (1887) being a notable example).

By 1871 he had met and befriended most of the major Pre-Raphaelite painters and it was in part due to their influence that the artist brightened his palette, varied his hues, and lightened his brushwork.

The previous year he and his wife made a journey on the continent that lasted five and a half months and took them through Brussels, Germany, and Italy.

He assisted with organizing the British section at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, as well as exhibiting two works that earned him the Grand Prix Diploma.

Through his last period of creativity Alma-Tadema continued to produce paintings which repeated the successful formula of women on marble terraces overlooking the sea such as in Silver Favourites (1903).

[28] In the summer of 1912, Alma-Tadema was accompanied by his daughter Anna to Kaiserhof Spa, Wiesbaden, Germany, to be treated for stomach ulcers.

[30][31][32] Alma-Tadema's works are remarkable for their depiction of flowers, textures and hard reflecting substances like metals, pottery, and especially marble (leading to the nickname 'marbellous painter').

He also took many images from books and amassed an enormous number of photographs from ancient sites in Italy, which he used to achieve the most precise detail in his painting.

[36] He influenced European painters such as Gustav Klimt and Fernand Khnopff,[36] who incorporated classical motifs, as well as Alma-Tadema's unconventional compositional devices such as abrupt cut-off at the edge of the canvas.

His detailed reconstructions of ancient Rome, with languid men and women posed against white marble in dazzling sunlight, provided his audience with a glimpse of an exotic world of titillating luxury and intimate drama.

Prices held well until the general collapse of the market for Victorian art in the early 1920s, when they fell to the hundreds, where they remained until the 1960s; by 1969 £4,600 had been reached again (equivalent to about £700 in 1900, adjusted for inflation).

John Ruskin declared him "the worst painter of the 19th century", and one critic considered his paintings "about worthy enough to adorn bourbon boxes".

He is now regarded by art historians as one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century, whose works demonstrate the care and exactitude of an era mesmerised by trying to visualise the past, some of which was being recovered through archaeological research.

Alma-Tadema's highly detailed depictions of Roman life and architecture, based on meticulous archaeological research, led Hollywood directors to his paintings as models for their cinematic ancient world, in films such as D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), Ben Hur (1926), and Cleopatra (1934).

The most notable was Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments (1956):[41] its co-writer Jesse Lasky Jr. described how the director would spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to guide his set designers.

The design of the Oscar-winning Roman epic Gladiator (2000) took its main inspiration from his paintings,[42] as well as that of the interior of Cair Paravel castle in The Chronicles of Narnia (2005).

[43] In 1962, New York art dealer Robert Isaacson mounted the first show of Alma-Tadema's work in fifty years,[44][45] and by the late 1960s, the revival of interest in Victorian painting gained impetus with a number of well-attended exhibitions.

[52] The Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham holds several archive collections relating to Alma-Tadema, including letters, artwork and photography.