The Women of Amphissa

1887

Followers of Bacchus, the god of wine, awaken in the marketplace of Amphissa, Greece, where they have wandered from their home in Phocis during a night of ritual dancing. Amphissa and Phocis are at war, but the women of Amphissa graciously offer the bacchantes nourishment and protection. The painting illustrates an event recorded by the Greek historian Plutarch, which Alma-Tadema staged as a lesson in charity for his Victorian audience.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	48 1/4 x 72 1/2 in. (122.5 x 184.2 cm) Frame: 58 15/16 x 83 1/16 x 4 in. (149.7 x 211 x 10.2 cm)
Object Number	1978.12
Acquisition	Acquired by the Clark, 1978
Status	On View

Image Caption

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Women of Amphissa, 1887, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, Acquired by the Clark, 1978.12

Select Bibliography

Warner, Malcolm and Robyn Asleson. Great British Paintings from American Collections: Holbein to Hockney. Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Kepetzis, Ekaterini. "John William Godward." Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch. Volume 63. Germany: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, 2002. Swanson, Vern G. The Biography and Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. London: Garton & Co., 1990. Exposition Universelle de 1889: Catalogue général officiel, tome premier. Exhibition catalogue. Lille: 1889. Temple, A. G. Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition of Pictures, By Painters of the British School Who Have Flourished During Her Majesty's Reign. Exhibition catalogue. London: Printed by Wertheimer, Lea, & Co., 1897. Lovett, Jennifer Gordon and William R. Johnston. Empires Restored, Elysium Revisited: The Art of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Exhibitionc catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1991. Alma-Tadema, Lawrence. Lawrence Alma-Tadema to Georg Ebers, 29 August 1887. Zimmern, Helen. "L. Alma-Tadema, R.A." The Art Journal (Christmas Supplement, 1886): 132. S[ala]., G[eorge]. A[ugustus]. "Echoes of the Week." Illustrated London News no. 2507 (7 May 1887). S., G. A. "Echoes of the Week." Illustrated London News xc, no. 2508 (14 May 1887). Anonymous. "Current ArtI." Magazine of Art 10 (1887). Alma-Tadema, Lawrence. Lawrence Alma-Tadema to J[ames?]. R[ussell?]. Lowell, 20 October 1889. Anonymous. "Art in June." The Magazine of Art 13 (1889): xxxiii–xxxvi. Anonymous. "Art in July." The Magazine of Art 13 (1889): xxxvii–xl. Phillips, Claude. "The Modern Schools of Painting and Sculpture." The Magazine of Art 14 (1891): 205–10. Monkhouse, Cosmo. "Laurens Alma-Tadema." Scribner's Magazine 18, no. 6 (December 1895): 663–92. Temple, A[lfred]. G[eorge]. The Art of Painting in the Queen's Reign. Exhibition catalogue. London, 1897. Monkhouse, Cosmo. British Contemporary Artists. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1899. Zimmern, Helen. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. London: G. Bell, 1902. Standing, Percy Cross. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema O.M., R.A.. London: Cassell & Co., 1905. Alma-Tadema, Lawrence. Lawrence Alma-Tadema to Isidore Spielman, 17 March 1908. Dircks, Rudolph. "The Later Works of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A., R.W.S." Art Journal (Special issue, Christmas 1910). Anonymous. "Current Art Notes." Connoisseur 35 (February 1913): 113–15. Collier, John. "The Art of Alma-Tadema." The Nineteenth Century and After 73 (March 1913). Collier, John. "The Art of Alma-Tadema." The Living Age 277 (14 June 1913): 65260. Spier, R. Phene. "Archaeological Research in the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema." The Architectural Review 33 (Feb. 1913): 448. Christie's, London. Advertisement. Apollo 101, no. 155 (January 1975). Christie's, London. Advertisement. Connoisseur 188 (January 1975). Swanson, Vern G. Alma-Tadema: The Painter of the Victorian Vision of the Ancient World. New York: Scribner, 1977. Anonymous. "Art Across North America". Apollo 1098 (October 1978): 2723. Anonymous. "Miscellaneous News." Art Journal 38, no. 2 (Winter 197879): Anonymous. "Les Chroniques des arts: Principales acquisitions des musées en 1978." Supplement to Gazette des Beaux-Arts 93, no. 1323 (April 1979). Precht, Katherine. The Paintings of the English School at the Clark Art Institute. Honors thesis, Williams College, 1981. Faison, S. Lane, Jr. The Art Museums of New England: Massachusetts. Vol. 2. Revised edition of Faison, Guide to the Art Museums of New England, 1958. Godine Guide 3. Boston: David R. Godine, 1982. Jenkins, Ian. "Frederic Lord Leighton and Greek Vases." The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 967 (October 1983): 597-605. Wood, Christopher. Olympian Dreamers: Victorian Clasican Painters 1860-1914. London: Constable & Co., 1983. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Kestner, Joseph A. Mythology and Misogyny: The Social Discourse of Nineteenth-Century British Classical-Subject Painting. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kroll, Jack. "Sublimation and Seduction." Newsweek (11 November 1991). Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Kraemer, Ross Shepard. Her Share of the Blessings: Women's Religions among Pagans, Jews, and Christians in the Greco-Roman World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Hedreen, Guy. "Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema's Women of Amphissa." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 52/53 (1994). Academic American Encyclopedia. Danbury, CT: Grolier, Inc., 1996. Kern, Steven, et al. The Clark: Selections from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Becker, Edwin, et al., eds. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Rizzoli, 1997. Anonymous. "Nineteenth-Century Painting and Sculpture." The Magazine Antiques 152 (October 1997): 522–31. Heijbroek, J. F. "The Exhausted Maenads: Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Carel Vosmer." Van Gogh Museum Journal, 1996: 164–75. Cherry, Deborah. Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850-1900. London: Routledge, 2000. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Royal Academy of Arts. The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts: The One Hundred and Nineteenth. Exhibition catalogue. London: William Clowes, 1887. Corporation of the Manchester Art Gallery. Fifth Autumn Exhibition. Exhibition catalogue. Manchester, England: Corporation of the Manchester Art Gallery, 1887. Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of Paintings by the Late Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema R.A. O.M. Exhibition catalogue. London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, 1913. Blackburn, Henry George, ed. Academy Notes with Facsimiles of Sketches by the Artists. London: Chatto and Windus, 1887. Anonymous. "The Royal Academy: Second Notice." Illustrated London News xc, no. 2507 (7 May 1887). Spielman, M. H. and G. S. Layard. Kate Greenaway. London: A & C Black, 1905. Tomlinson, Richard. The Athens of Alma Tadema. Stroud, Gloucestershire, England and Wolfeboro, NH: A. Sutton, 1991. Barrow, Rosemary. Lawrence Alma-Tadema. London: Phaidon, 2001. Jiminez, Jill Berk. Dictionary of Artists' Models. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2001. Satullo, Steven A. "Collecting Beyond the Clarks." Journal of the Clark Art Institute 3 (2002): 3245. Cahill, Timothy. Art in Nature: The Clark Art Inside and Out. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francince Clark Art Institute, 2005 Radasanu, Andrea, ed. The Pious Sex: Women and Religion in the History of Political Thought. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2010. Melikian, Souren. "A Unique and Unforgettable Collection." International Herald Tribune, 16–17 September 2000. Querci, Eugenia. Alma-Tadema e la nostalgia dell'antico: Pompei, Ercolano e l'interpretazione della classicità: nella pittura del secondo Ottocento. Exhibition catalogue. Milan: Electa, 2007.

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Provenance

[Commissioned by Agnew’s, London, 1887, sold to Thwaites, 30 Apr. or 15 July 1887];¹ Daniel Thwaites, Blackburn (1887–d. 1888); Eliza Amelia Thwaites, Blackburn, his wife, by descent (1888–d. 1907); Elma Amy Thwaites Yerburgh, London, her daughter, by descent (1907–d. 1946); great-grandson of Thwaites; sale, Christie’s, London, 24 Jan. 1975, no. 108; [Somerville & Simpson, London, sold to the Clark, May 1978]; Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1978. 1. A letter in the Clark curatorial file from Evelyn Joll of Agnew’s, dated 5 Apr. 1979, states that Agnew’s sold this picture along with another to Daniel Thwaites, of Blackburn, and that Thwaites’s great-grandson sold this picture at Christie’s some years before the date of the letter. Clark records indicate the first sale date as 15 July 1887, but Vern Swanson gives it as 30 Apr. 1887; see Swanson, The Biography and Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1990, p. 233.