A Favourite Custom is an oil on canvas history painting by the Dutch British artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema, from 1909.Barrow p.191
Description It depicts a scene in a bathhouse at Pompeii in Ancient Rome.https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/alma-tadema-a-favourite-custom-n02675 In the foreground, two naked women are seen playfully in a bathhouse pool. Produced near the end of his career, it characteristically combines two nude women with a meticulously recreated portrayal of the customs of a bathhouse. He had been producing similar such paintings since 1882.Liversidge & Edwards p.168-70
Provenance The painting was displayed at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition of 1909 at Burlington House. It was then acquired for the Tate Gallery through the Chantrey Bequest for £1,750 a large sum for a smaller picture such as this. It remains in the collection of the Tate.Liversidge & Edwards p.168
References
Bibliography Barrow, Rosemary J. Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Phaidon Press, 2001. Liversidge, Michael & Edwards, Catherine. Imagining Rome British Artists and Rome in the Nineteenth Century. Merrell Holberton, 1996.