The Garden of Alma-Tadema's House, 1911 (oil on canvas)

There is a haunted atmosphere of expectancy in this picture, painted the year before the death of Tadema, when he was ill. A girl in Roman dress in the shrubbery looks towards the studio of Tadema's grand house at 34 Grove End Road, St John's Wood, as if expecting the artist to come out and join her. Perhaps it is the figure of Laura, Tadema's wife, who had died two years previously. The statue of Hermes Fastening his Sandal also looks for him. Hermes was the god of boundaries, and could cross easily between the mortal and the divine worlds, and he is ready to carry news.