- Simeon Solomon
Simeon Solomon (b.
October 9 ,1840 inLondon , England – d.August 14 ,1905 in St. Giles's Workhouse) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter.Biography
Solomon was born into a prominent Jewish family. He was the eighth and last child born to prominent merchant Michael (Meyer) Solomon and artist Catherine (Kate) Levy. Solomon was a younger brother to fellow painters
Abraham Solomon (1824–1862) andRebecca 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 theRoyal Academy during the same year.As a student at the Royal Academy Schools, Solomon was introduced through
Dante Gabriel Rossetti to other members of thePre-Raphaelite circle, including the poetAlgernon Charles Swinburne and the painterEdward 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 theHebrew Bible and genre paintings depictingJew ish life and rituals.Solomon lived as an openly
gay man in a time when it was not socially acceptable to do so,citation |last=Lockard |first=Ray Anne |url=http://www.glbtq.com/arts/solomon_s.html |title=Solomon, Simeon |year=2002 |periodical=glbtq.com |accessdate=2007-09-19] but in 1873 his career was cut short when he was arrested in apublic urinal at Stratford Place Mews, off Oxford Street, inLondon and charged withindecent exposure and attempting to commitsodomy . He was sentenced to serve eighteen months'hard labour inprison , but this was later reduced topolice supervision. He was arrested again in 1874 in Paris, after which he was sentenced to spend three months in prison.In 1884 he was admitted to the
workhouse where he continued to produce work; however, his life and talent were blighted byalcoholism . Twenty years later in 1905, he died from complications brought on by his alcoholism. He was buried at the Jewish Cemetery inWillesden .Examples of his work are on permanent display at the
Victoria and Albert Museum and atLeighton House . In December 2005/January 2006, there was an important retrospective of his work, held at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and in London at theBen Uri Gallery in October / November 2006.Popular Culture
In
Anthony Powell 's novel "A Buyer's Market " (book 2 in "A Dance to the Music of Time "), the narrator says of the artist Mr. Deacon that Solomon was one of the few painters he admired.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…”Bibliography
*Colin Cruise et al (ed) "Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites": London: Merrett/Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: 2005: ISBN 1-85894-311-6
ee also
*
List of Pre-Raphaelite paintings - including the works of Simeon Solomon.References
External links
* [http://www.simeonsolomon.org/ Simeon Solomon Research Archive]
* [http://www.carolynconroy.co.uk/arthistory.aspx PhD thesis in progress on Solomon's life after 1873]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1586365,00.html "Fallen angel"] - article by Neil Bartlett from "The Guardian ",October 7 ,2005 .
* [http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/artists2/solomona.htm A profile of his brother Abraham]
* [http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/artists2/solomonr.htm A profile of his sister Rebecca]
* [http://www.mmkaylor.com Michael Matthew Kaylor, "Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians: Hopkins, Pater and Wilde" (2006)] , a 500-page scholarly volume that considers the prominent Victorian writers of Uranian poetry and prose, as well as several artists such as Solomon (the author has made this volume available in a free, open-access, PDF version).
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