Sir Alma Tadema

Biography

Sir Alma Tadema is credited with the special design for an elaborate art-grand piano built by Steinway & Sons for the New York patron Mr. Marquand, who reportedly paid forty thousand dollars for the instrument. Johnston Norman of London carried out the embellishments under Tadema's personal direction, and Sir Edward Poynter painted the lid picture 'The Wandering Minstrels' as part of the commission, which took five years in total to finish. The text also associates his design tradition with an art grand built by John Broadwood & Sons. He is presented as an example of the artistic collaborations that produced the most celebrated 'art pianos' of the era.

Highlights

• Special-designed the art-grand case that Steinway & Sons built for Mr. Marquand of New York, said to have cost forty thousand dollars
• The same design tradition produced an art grand for John Broadwood & Sons
• Under his personal direction, Johnston Norman of London executed the embellishments and Sir Edward Poynter painted the lid picture 'The Wandering Minstrels'; the piece took five years to complete

Source

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 189.

Public domain.