Gay, Jewish and alcoholic, Pre-Raphaelite artist Simeon Solomon was always going to stand out in Victorian Britain, which was undergoing a revival of Christian, moral temperance. Initially, at least, Solomon was accepted into the art establishment, exhibiting regularly at the Royal Academy. His large-scale works were peopled by figures from antiquity and the Torah, rich in allegory and drenched in sentiment (“bordering a little on the crapulous” as a contemporary critic opined, though this could apply equally to their creator). After an arrest for cottaging, Solomon’s fortunes waned, and once released from prison he was reduced to selling matches and drawing on pavements. He spent the last 20 years of his life in a workhouse in London’s Covent Garden, where he died on this day in 1905. These studies and stand-alone drawings display the draughtsmanship so admired by fellow artists, and include portraits of Burne-Jones, Swinburne and the delightfully named Fanny Eaton.
Portrait of Edward Burne-Jones 1859
Portrait of Fanny Eaton 1859
Portrait of Algernon Charles Swinburne 1863
Illustration to the Song of Solomon 1868
Angel and Youth 1881
Cupid 1886
A Venetian Study 1892
Night Looking Upon Sleep her Beloved Child 1893
Helen of Troy 1894
Terra 1895
Hope 1896
Dawn 1897
Further reading
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