Portrait of Mrs. Ralph Sneyd (Mary Ellis Sneyd)

1889

Alma-Tadema most often painted portraits of his family and friends, but no personal ties to Mary Ellis Sneyd and her husband are known. This painting shows the sitter in the artist’s home, identified by its Mexican onyx window and Moorish table. Her gold rings and bracelets contrast with her muted dress and may be props—similar jewelry adorns the hands of classical maidens in the paintings of ancient scenes that made Alma-Tadema famous.

Medium	oil on panel
Dimensions	12 x 9 3/8 in. (30.5 x 23.8 cm)
Object Number	1996.12
Acquisition	Gift of Michael Coe in memory of Sophie D. Coe, 1996
Status	Off View

Image Caption

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Portrait of Mrs. Ralph Sneyd (Mary Ellis Sneyd), 1889, oil on panel. Clark Art Institute, gift of Michael Coe in memory of Sophie D Coe, 1996.12

Select Bibliography

Robert Isaacson Gallery. An Exhibition to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Robert Isaacson Gallery, 1962. 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. Blackburn, Henry George. Academy Notes. London: 1890. Anonymous. "The Royal Academy: Concluding Notice." Illustrated London News no. 1667 (May 31, 1890). Dircks, Rudolph. "The Later Works of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, O.M., R.A., R.W.S." Art Journal (Special issue, Christmas 1910). Anonymous. "Art for Christmas." Art News 59 no. 8 (December 1960). Swanson, Vern G. The Biography and Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. London: Garton & Co., 1990. 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 Twenty-Second. Exhibition catalogue. London: Printed by W. Clowes, 1890. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Miscellaneous 19th Century Artists, Supplement. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Serling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1958.

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

Commissioned by Ralph Sneyd, 1889; [N. Mitchell, London]; sale, Christie’s, London, 9 Nov. 1945, no. 85; Nicholson, London;¹ [Robert Isaacson Gallery, New York, by 1960, until at least 1962]; Michael D. Coe, New Haven (by 1991–96, given to the Clark, 4 Nov. 1996); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1996. 1. The early provenance of this picture is documented in Swanson 1990, p. 239.