Where to See Simeon Solomon

Simeon Solomon's work can be viewed in several museums. In the United Kingdom, these include the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, the National Museums of Scotland (Royal Museum) in Edinburgh, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Other locations include the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. You can also find his pieces at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. It is always advisable to check a museum's website or contact them directly to confirm that specific works by Solomon are on display, as collections and exhibitions can change.

Simeon Solomon produced relatively few original prints. His printmaking occurred primarily in the 1860s and 1870s, during his most successful period as a painter and draughtsman. Solomon created etchings and wood engravings. Examples include illustrations for *Dalziels' Bible Gallery* (1863) and *A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep* (1871). These demonstrate his interest in biblical subjects and Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics. His prints often share themes with his paintings, exploring beauty, love, and spirituality. Solomon's prints are characterised by delicate lines and a dreamlike atmosphere. After his arrest in 1873, Solomon's career declined sharply. He produced fewer original works and relied more on selling drawings and reproductions of earlier pieces. Prints after Solomon's art were made by various commercial printmakers, further expanding the availability of his images. These later prints vary in quality and faithfulness to the originals. Collectors should pay attention to the print's provenance and compare it to known examples of Solomon's original work.

Simeon Solomon's art is important for several reasons. His paintings, drawings, and illustrations offer insight into Victorian society's complex attitudes toward gender, sexuality, and religion. Solomon explored themes of love and desire between men. This was at a time when homosexual acts were illegal in Britain. His work provides a visual record of a subculture that often remained hidden. Paintings such as *Sappho and Erinna at Mytilene* (1864) directly addressed same-sex relationships, while others used allegory and symbolism to explore similar themes. His Jewish identity also influenced his artistic output. He often depicted scenes from the Hebrew Bible and Jewish rituals. These works offer a unique perspective on Jewish life in Victorian England. They also reflect Solomon's own negotiation of his religious and cultural background. After his arrest and conviction for public indecency in 1873, Solomon's career suffered a sharp decline. Despite this, his artistic contributions have experienced a revival of interest in recent decades. This is due to increased awareness of LGBTQ+ history and a desire to understand the experiences of marginalised communities in the past. His art provides a valuable lens through which to examine Victorian social norms and the challenges faced by those who defied them.

Simeon Solomon worked across several media, including oils, watercolours, chalk and pencil. While specific details about his techniques are scarce, analysis of James McNeill Whistler's methods, who was a contemporary, provides some context. Whistler often used heavy canvases, applying thin grounds to maintain texture. He prepared his own grounds, sometimes using a light grey imprimatura of oil paint. Later, he favoured darker grey, exploiting it to develop chiaroscuro effects. For darker grounds, he mixed ivory black and lead white, modifying them with other pigments. Whistler's palette arrangement is well documented, with colours laid out in a specific order: Prussian blue, cobalt blue, raw umber, yellow ochre, lead white, vermilion, and black. He mixed colours on his palette before applying them to the canvas. He also used many brushes during a single sitting, cleaning and preparing them carefully. Like Whistler, Solomon likely experimented with materials and techniques.

Simeon Solomon's work had an impact on several artists and movements. His early drawings, especially those with religious themes, show the influence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Solomon met Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and others in their circle, who admired his talent. His drawings, done very much under the influence of Rossetti, were exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1858 to 1872. Later in his career, Solomon explored a more symbolist tone, with deviations on classical and religious themes. Symbolism, which began as a literary movement, championed imagination as the most important source of creativity. It filtered into the visual arts as a reaction to Realism and Impressionism. Symbolist painters used emotive colours and stylised images to float their visions and moods into the viewer's consciousness, sometimes painting exotic, dream-like scenes. Solomon's work, with its mysterious and grotesque elements, fits within this context.

Simeon Solomon's drawing style was influenced by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Solomon met Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and others within their circle; they admired his talent. Solomon produced several notable drawings on religious themes, exhibiting these at the Royal Academy from 1858 to 1872. He also drew for wood engravings in *Once a Week* (1862) and *Good Words* (1866), as well as *Jewish Customs* for *Leisure Hour* (1866). He created several designs on religious subjects for the Dalziels' *Bible Gallery* (1880). In 1858, Solomon produced one etching, *The Haunted House*, for the Junior Etching Club's *Poems of Thomas Hood*. This work depicts a lone woman clutching a child in a doorway. Later, Solomon's paintings took on a more symbolist tone with striking deviations on classical and religious themes.

It is difficult to name one single work as Simeon Solomon's most famous. He produced a varied body of work, including paintings, drawings, and illustrations. Solomon explored themes of love, desire, and religious identity, often drawing inspiration from the Hebrew Bible and mythology. He is associated with the later Pre-Raphaelites, and his work shares some traits with Aestheticism and Decadence. Some of his well-known pieces include 'The Sleepers, and One That Watcheth' (circa 1870), a watercolour featuring androgynous figures in a dreamlike setting; 'Sappho and Erinna at Mytilene' (1864), depicting the Greek poet Sappho with a female companion; and 'Bacchus' (1867), an exploration of classical mythology with homoerotic undertones. The subjects and treatment in Solomon's art caused considerable discussion during his lifetime.

Simeon Solomon is associated with the second wave of Pre-Raphaelite painters. This second wave included Frederic Leighton, John William Waterhouse, and Evelyn De Morgan. Solomon met Rossetti and Burne-Jones, and they admired his talent. His drawings show Rossetti's influence. Solomon exhibited drawings on religious themes at the Royal Academy from 1858 to 1872. His early work borrowed from the Pre-Raphaelites, with dense, fine pen work and attenuated figures reminiscent of Rossetti. One etching by Solomon, The Haunted House, was published in *Poems of Thomas Hood*, 1858. Later, Solomon explored a more symbolist tone with deviations on classical and religious themes. Some Pre-Raphaelite artists moved closer to Symbolism from the 1870s onward.