Advisor(s)
Paulina Banas
Committee Member(s)
Noa Turel
Rachel Stephens
School
College of Arts and Sciences
Document Type
Thesis
Department (new version)
Arts & Humanities
Date of Award
9-11-2025
Abstract
Existing research on the methodology behind the production of ancient Egyptian-themed paintings of Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) has centered on his use of an extensive cache of reference materials. This thesis suggests that Alma-Tadema’s sources of historical information and creative influence far exceeded his private reference library, also hinging on his vast personal network and specifically examining the collaborative friendship he maintained with German author and professor of Egyptian studies Georg Ebers (1837-1898). A thorough reading of letters from Alma-Tadema to Ebers elucidates the impact of the German author on the artist’s understanding of Egypt from the Pharaonic to the Roman period and in connection with the Bible, as well as the influential nature of Ebers’ historical fiction novels on Alma-Tadema’s oil paintings set in Egypt. The collaborative efforts of both men also allowed their co-created vision of ancient Egypt to be circulated to wide audiences, some of which experienced Alma-Tadema’s work for the first time in a new format and with added meanings alongside Ebers’ text. These significant, although likely unintentional, changes resulting from the men’s partnership impacted the public’s interpretation of Alma-Tadema’s original oil paintings, such as Death of the Firstborn (1872), grounding the work as a Judeo-Christian-centric painting. By foregrounding the sustained and reciprocal nature of Alma-Tadema’s relationship with Ebers, this thesis challenges the prevailing narrative of the painter as autonomous and of his reconstructions of daily life in ancient Egypt as merely a result of the artist’s solitary study or aesthetic imagination. Instead, it situates his Egyptian-themed compositions and their reception within a broader network of nineteenth-century interdisciplinary scholarly exchange and transnational collaboration.
ProQuest ID
Recommended Citation
Casement, Elizabeth, "Bridging Fact And Fiction: Lawrence Alma-Tadema’S And Georg Ebers’ Visions Of Ancient Egypt" (2025). All ETDs from UAB. 7395.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/7395
