In the Tepidarium

The tepidarium is a warm bath in the Roman culture. Since Lawrence was influenced by the Roman culture in most of his painting as is seen in this painting. The painting shows a beautiful lady lying on a couch after a bath.

The style used in the tepidarium painting is Romanticism. This style was used to paint nude paintings and bring out the beauty of the bare skin. The technique involved the use of bright colours to bring out the beauty in the painting. Additionally, the technique used every stroke with precision to bring out an even tone on the woman’s body. The painting shows the rosy flushed and coloured cheeks of the lady.

The materials used to bring this painting to life and show the beauty of the lady is oil and canvas. Oil and canvas were preferred in Lawrence Alma-Tadema's paintings as they showed contrasting colour with class. Each stroke used in this painting was done with care, and the woman’s gorgeous body is depicted in a classy way. The lady’s curves are shown in this painting, and they show the natural beauty of women. The painting was commissioned by the A and F pears soap company who wanted to use it for a soap commercial. They later decided not to use it as they saw that it would shock most of their customers with its erotic nudity. The A and F Company made a bold move by not using this picture, especially in the 19th century.

The tepidarium painting is part of a private collection at the lady lever art gallery in port sunlight. The woman holds an ostrich feather, and she strategically places it on her lower abdomen. On the other hand, she holds a strigil which was used to scrap the skin after taking a bath and oiling it. Lawrence Alma-Tadema was an artist and a teacher at the Royal Academy. Here he mentored a lot of his students who turned out to be great painters like John William Godward. The artist was known for his Victorian inspired paintings. In most of his paintings, he showed the beauty of the ladies in a most fascinating and classy way.