Portrait of Miss Laura Theresa Epps (Lady AlmaTadema)

Portrait of Miss Laura Theresa Epps, painted in 1871, depicts the woman who would shortly become Alma-Tadema's second wife. Laura Epps (1852–1909) was a talented painter in her own right, a member of the Epps family who moved in progressive artistic and intellectual circles in London. She had studied under Ford Madox Brown and would exhibit at the Royal Academy throughout her career. Alma-Tadema met the Epps family in 1869 and married Laura in 1871, the same year this portrait was likely completed. The portrait thus occupies a charged personal context — it is both a formal record of an attractive young woman and an intimate document of an emerging romantic attachment. Laura Alma-Tadema went on to produce highly accomplished genre paintings that are now reassessed as significant in their own right, rather than merely as adjuncts to her husband's career.

The portrait is executed in oil on canvas with the smooth, controlled technique Alma-Tadema applied to all his figure work. The sitter is rendered with careful attention to likeness and individual character. The composition likely draws on conventions of Victorian portraiture while incorporating the clarity of observation Alma-Tadema brought from his academic training. The palette is relatively restrained, foregrounding the sitter's personality rather than decorative elaboration.