Audience with Agrippa

'Audience with Agrippa' shows the Roman Emperor Agrippa descending to meet with citizens who have come with gifts and humble requests. Lawrence Alma Tadema  produced a second painting entitled "After the Audience" which is exactly the same only in it Agrippa is ascending the stairs.   Tadema had an outstanding ability to paint different textures and his representation of marble was particularly remarkable. The statue in the foreground of this work is the figure of Emperor Claudius which had recently been excavated at the time Tadema was painting.   Tadema was preoccupied with the classical world and it formed the subject matter of most of his work. He was Dutch born but settled in England at the age of 35 where he enjoyed great success as an artist. He was never a part of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood but he knew members of the group and like several of them he made visits to Penkill Castle where he did some collaborative work with William Bell Scott.