The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, 41 B.C.

The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, 41 B.C.

This painting by Lawrence Alma-Tadema shows Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and Mark Antony meeting for the first time. Cleopatra is reclining in her pleasure barge, wearing a sheer white dress. Antony is leaning over from his seat in the background, clearly interested in the queen. The painting is a beautiful depiction of one of the most famous power couples in history.

Public domain

US$ 29,202,500

London, Grosvenor Gallery, Winter Exhibition, 1882 (ex-catalogue) London, Grosvenor Gallery, Summer Exhibition, 1883, no. 122 Berlin, The Royal Akademie, Autumn Exhibition, 1887 Berlin, Fritz Gurletts Salon, 1888 Birmingham, The Royal Society of Artists, 31st Spring Exhibition, 1896, no. 646 London, The Royal Academy Diploma Gallery, The Robinson Collection, 1958, no. 81 Ottawa, The National Gallery of Canada, An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Victorian Artists in England, 1965, no. 2 (lent by James Coats) Palm Beach, Florida, The Society of Four Arts, English Painting of the Victorian Era: A Loan Exhibition, Februrary 1966, no. 4 (lent by James Coats) New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Victorians in Togas: Paintings by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema from the Collection of Allen Funt, March 1973, no. 21

Unknown

Samuel W. Hawk, New York (commissioned from the artist in 1883) Frau von Munkhausen (acquired from the above in 1887 and until at least 1897) Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson (in 1923) Princess Labia (by descent from the above, her father and sold: Sotheby's, London, November 20, 1963, lot 98, illustrated) Messrs James Coats, New York (acquired at the above sale) Allen Funt (acquired from the above in 1966 and sold: Sotheby's, Belgravia, November 6, 1973, lot 21, illustrated and as cover) Leger Gallery, London (acquired at the above sale) Galerie Royal, Vancouver (in circa 1978) Sale: Sotheby's, London, November 24, 1987, lot 30, illustrated) The Margaret Brown Collection (probably acquired at the above sale and sold: Christie's, London, June 11, 1993, lot 123, illustrated) Private Collection, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner

25 3/4 x 36 inches (65.5 cm x 91.4 cm)

Possibly begun as early as 1881 and completed in 1883 (the artist signed the work on January 7th of that year), a writer visiting the artist's studio in 1882 explained, Alma-Tadema "appears to have been even more than unusually industrious lately, and there are many pictures finished and unfinished, on easels and off of them. One of the most interesting is of Antony abandoning his fleet to join Cleopatra.... The completion of this picture had given the artist great trouble. 'You do not know how difficult it is to paint pictures,' he said to me. The principal difficulty in his case is, I suspect, to select the best of the many visions conceived by his teeming fancy" ("Some English Artists," The Century, p. 566, fig. 2).

1885