The drawing depicts the lower portion of A Favourite Custom (Op CCCXCI, April 1909, Tate Britain). To the right a girl splashes water on her companion to the left. Her companion is also in chest-deep water. She tries to defend herself and the scarf which protects her dry hair.

The custom of public bathing in Roman society surpassed that of the games, especially among the aristocracy. The thermae depicted by Alma-Tadema in A Favourite custom portrays a calidarium in the foreground with an apodyterium (dressing-room) behind. The Roman bath was a favourite theme of Alma-Tadema. He employed it at least seventeen times, ending with Splashing. Of the painting Walter Pach once remarked, 'Its narrative content hints at a strange transition from Victorian opulence to risque Edwardian humor.' In a letter to the Royal Academy, Tadema, who was not quite finished with the picture by Sending-in Day, asked to be allowed the use of a separate room on their premises on Varnishing Days to finish the picture. Since Alma-Tadema had missed the 1907 R.A. Summer Exhibition he was anxious to have a painting ready in 1909.
During this period, Tadema often drew fairly finished drawings after sections of his major oils for reproduction purposes. This, and many others of these were commissioned by Pall Mall Magazine, including Geta and his Sister (Op CCCLXXXI, 1907) and Principal figure of "The Voice of Spring" (Op CCCXCVIII, 1910).

We are grateful to Vern Swanson, who is currently working on a catalogue raisonné of the artist's works on paper, for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.