Laurens Tadema (later he changed to the more English Lawrence) was born January 8, 1836 in the small village of Dronrijp, which lies about 3 miles to the west of Leeuwarden, Holland. He was the sixth child of Pieter Jiltes Tadema, a notary. It is unclear when and why he affixed the name Alma to his last name, probably it was the name of his godfather.

His parents wanted him to become a lawyer and Laurens was enrolled at the gymnasium of Leeuwarden. Although Laurens was a good student, he always wanted to be an artist and, with great enthusiasm he tried to pursue both courses. This caused a significant decline of his health that his doctors even predicted he would die shortly. His mother decided to allow him to spend his remaining days doing what he enjoyed most, to paint. But happily after that he recovered completely.

He died in 1912 and World War I brought about the death of the popularity of his kind of painting. There was a resurgence in the 1960s and 70s, but he has also been called the worst painter of the 19th century.