British artist (1840–1905) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simeon Solomon (9 October 1840 – 14 August 1905) was a British painter associated with the Pre-Raphaelites who was noted for his depictions of Jewish life[1] and same-sex desire.[2][3] His career was cut short as a result of public scandal following his arrests and convictions for attempted sodomy in 1873 and 1874.[4]
Solomon was born into a prominent Jewish family. He was the eighth and last child born to merchant Michael (Meyer) Solomon and artist Catherine (Kate) Levy. Solomon was a younger brother to fellow painters Abraham Solomon (1824–1862) and Rebecca Solomon (1832–1886).
Born and educated in London, Solomon started receiving lessons in painting from his older brother around 1850. He started attending Carey's Art Academy in 1852. His older sister first exhibited her works at the Royal Academy during the same year.
As a student at the Royal Academy Schools, Solomon was introduced through Dante Gabriel Rossetti to other members of the Pre-Raphaelite circle, as well as the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne and the painter Edward Burne-Jones in 1857. His first exhibition was at the Royal Academy in 1858. He continued to hold exhibitions of his work at the Royal Academy between 1858 and 1872. In addition to the literary paintings favoured by the Pre-Raphaelite school, Solomon's subjects often included scenes from the Hebrew Bible and genre paintings depicting Jewish life and rituals. He produced illustrations for Swinburne's controversial novel Lesbia Brandon in 1865.[5]
In 1871 he commissioned a private printing of a prose poem of his own composition, A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep.[6] A contemporary reviewer in The Jewish Chronicle described it as "an account (with episodes) of a series of progressive manifestations of embodied love, seen through the medium of a trance", entirely "devoted to the glorification of pure Love ... perfect, peaceful, and passionless". The reviewer was pleased to find the text "imbued throughout with the spirit of religious belief and reverence". He assured the reader that "there is not a sentence in it which could raise a blush to the cheek of the often quoted 'young person', for whose moral welfare reviewers are so solicitous."[7] Solomon distributed most of the copies to his friends; surviving copies are rare.[8]
In 1873, Solomon was arrested for soliciting in public toilets and having sex with a 60-year-old stableman named George Roberts. Both men were charged with indecent exposure and an attempt to commit buggery. Both were found guilty, fined £100 and sentenced to 18 months hard labour.[4][9] Solomon was arrested again in 1874 in Paris on a similar charge, after which he was sentenced to spend three months in prison.[9][10][11][12]
In the 1880s and 1890s, unable to support himself and suffering from alcoholism, he spent several stints in the St. Giles Workhouse even as he continued to produce work. On 14 August 1905, he died from complications brought on by his alcoholism. He was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Willesden.
Pre-Raphaelite Painters from Collections in Lancashire, Tate Britain, London. 17 July 1913 – 28 September 1913[14]
National Gallery of British Art (Tate). July 1923
1930-1959
Jewish Art, Ben Uri Gallery. May 1934
Subjects of Jewish Interest, Ben Uri Gallery. December 1946
1960-1989
Exhibition of English Watercolours, Leger Galleries. 1964
Exhibition of English Watercolours 18th & 19th Century, Leger Galleries. 1965
Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Simeon Solomon, Durlacher Brothers Gallery, 538 Madison Ave, NYC. In May the exhibition moved to Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA. April–May 1966
Acquisitions of the Friends of the Art Museums of Israel, Ben Uri Gallery. March 1985
Solomon: A family of painters—Abraham Solomon, 1823-1862, Rebecca Solomon, 1832-1886, Simeon Solomon, 1840-1905. Geffrye Museum, London, 8 November–31 December 1985; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, 18 January–9 March 1986
1990-present
From Prodigy to Outcast: Simeon Solomon, Pre-Raphaelite Artist, Jewish Museum, London. March 2001–May 2001
Solomon Art Exhibition, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. April 2002–June 2002
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. 1 October 2005 – 15 January 2006
Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum, Various Locations in the UK and USA. 19 March 2005 – 29 July 2007
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich. 9 March–18 June 2006
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites, Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art. 11 September–26 November 2006[15]
Blake's Shadow: William Blake and his Artistic Legacy, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. 26 January 2008 – 20 April 2008
The Pre-Raphaelites and Italy, Museo d'Arte della città di Ravenna, Ravenna, Italy. 28 February 2010 – 6 June 2010
The Pre-Raphaelites and Italy, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 15 September 2010 – 5 December 2010[16]
Queer British Art 1861-1967, Tate Britain, 5 April–1 October 2017, included seven works by Solomon[17] and a performance of A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep, Neil Bartlett's one-man homage to Solomon, performed 7 July 2017.[18]
In Oscar Wilde's long prison letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, De Profundis, Wilde writes of his bankruptcy: "That all my charming things were to be sold: my Burne-Jones drawings: my Whistler drawings: my Monticelli: my Simeon Solomons: my china: my Library…"
Seymour, Gayle M. Simeon Solomon and the Biblical Construction of Marginal Identity in Victorian England, Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 33, Issue 3–4, 1997.
William A. Peniston, "Pederasts and others: urban culture and sexual identity in nineteenth-century Paris", Haworth gay & lesbian studies, Routledge, 2004, ISBN1-56023-486-5, pp. 77–78.
Jeffrey Merrick, Bryant T. Ragan, "Homosexuality in modern France", Studies in the history of sexuality, Oxford University Press US, 1996, ISBN0-19-509303-8, p. 134.
Geoffrey Wigoder, "Everyman's Judaica: an encyclopedic dictionary", Keter Publishing House Jerusalem, 1975, ISBN978-0-7065-1412-4, p.562
Colin Cruise et al. (ed), Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites, London: Merrett/Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 2005, ISBN1-85894-311-6
Simon Reynolds, The Vision of Simeon Solomon, Oak Knoll Press, 1984, ISBN0-685-30068-4
Solomon: A family of painters: Abraham Solomon, 1823–1862, Rebecca Solomon, 1832–1886, Simeon Solomon, 1840–1905: Geffrye Museum, London, 8 November–31 December 1985 [and] Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 18 January–9 March 1986, Inner London Education Authority, 1986, ISBN0-7085-9968-0