Oil on wood
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-lawrence-alma-tadema-6" aria-label="More by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema</a>
A Favourite Custom
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1909
actions: processes and functions
adults
architecture
bathing / swimming
baths
bowl
classical
classical
countries and continents
dressing / undressing
features
female
flower
fountain
furnishings
garden structures
gargoyle
historical: imagined views
history
interiors
Italy
leisure and pastimes
nudes
objects
people
periods and styles
places
plants and flowers
Pompeii
public and municipal
recreational activities
Rome
table
vessels and containers
woman
<p>This scene is set in the baths at Pompeii. In the foreground one woman playfully splashes another bathing in the ‘frigidarium’, a cold bath. The artist based this work on photographs of the ruins of the Stabian baths, revealed by archaeologists in 1824. He has made them more luxurious by adding a marble floor and walls which would more usually have been found in larger imperial baths. This small work attracted enormous success when it was exhibited and bought immediately for the nation.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2016</em></p>
painting oil wood
17 January 2004 – 9 May 2004
2004-05-09
17 January 2004 – 9 May 2004
2004-05-09
2004-01-17
Galleria d’Arte Moderna  (Bologna, Italy)
http://www.galleriadartemoderna.bo.it
2004-01-17
Ideal and reality
Loan-out
4 October 2008 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
4 October 2008 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
2008-10-04
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2008-10-04
Heimo Zobernig and the Tate Collection
Exhibition
15 September 2012 – 31 January 2013
2013-01-31
15 September 2012 – 31 January 2013
2013-01-31
2012-09-15
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham, UK)
http://www.bmag.org.uk
2012-09-15
Love and Death: Victorian Paintings from Tate
Loan-out
5 November 2016 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
5 November 2016 – 5 February 2017
2017-02-05
2016-11-05
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
18 March 2017 – 16 July 2017
2017-07-16
2017-03-18
Auckland Art Gallery (Auckland, New Zealand)
11 August 2017 – 4 February 2018
2018-02-04
2017-08-11
Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Seoul, South Korea)
24 March 2018 – 24 June 2018
2018-06-24
2018-03-24
Yokohama Museum of Art (Yokohama, Japan)
13 July 2018 – 28 October 2018
2018-10-28
2018-07-13
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)
2016-11-05
Nude: art from the Tate collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
A Favourite Custom
support: 660 × 451 mm
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1909
<div><p><span>This scene is set in the baths at Pompeii. In the foreground one woman playfully splashes another bathing in the ‘frigidarium’, a cold bath. Lawrence Alma-Tadema based the work on photographs of the ruins of the Stabian baths, revealed by archaeologists in 1824. He made them more luxurious by adding a marble floor and walls which would more usually have been found in larger imperial baths. This small work attracted enormous success when it was exhibited and it was bought immediately for the nation.</span></p></div>
Online caption
2024-04-22T00:00:00
online-caption
ONLINE_CAPTION
actions: processes and functions adults architecture bathing / swimming baths bowl classical classical countries and continents dressing / undressing features female flower fountain furnishings garden structures gargoyle historical: imagined views history interiors Italy leisure and pastimes nudes objects people periods and styles places plants and flowers Pompeii public and municipal recreational activities Rome table vessels and containers woman