The painting "A Reading from Homer" by Lawrence Tadema, after 1836

Photograph of the painting "A Reading from Homer" by Lawrence Tadema, after 1836. A man who is presumably Homer is shown to the right, seated with a scroll unfurled in his lap. Wearing his laurel crown, he recites to the group of listeners that lounges before him to the left: a girl holding a tambourine along the curved marble bench, a young man who holds her hand and a lute at his side, another youth dressed in animal furs laying on his stomach, and a fourth youth with bandaged feet lingering in the left background. According to the picture file card, this group is supposed to represent young Phaon and his friends in B.C. 805.; Tadema was born in West Friesland, Holland in 1836 and showed talent for drawing at five years of age. At 16 he began art study at the Royal Academy at Antwerp, Belgium. At 24 he entered the studio of a famous Belgium painter who the picture file card does not name. Later, he won the gold medal in Paris in 1864 and 1867 (assumedly in painting). The picture file card credits him as having found his love of "color, finish and detail" from his "Dutch ancestors and early teachers".