# Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Solomon, Simeon

​SOLOMON, SIMEON (1840–1905), painter and draughtsman, born at 3 Sandys Street, Bishopsgate Without, on 9 Oct. 1840, was the youngest son of Michael Solomon, a Leghorn hat manufacturer, by his wife Kate Levy. His father was a prominent member of the Jewish community in the City of London. His elder brother, Abraham Solomon [q. v.], and his elder sister, Rebecca (d. 1886), both made art their profession. The sister, who subsequently developed like Simeon an errant nature and came to disaster, schooled him in Hebraic history and ritual. After steady education he, while still a boy, was admitted to the Grower Street studio of his elder brother, Abraham Solomon, and there his talents quickly asserted themselves.
Before he was fifteen he entered the Royal Academy schools, and in 1858 he exhibited at the Academy 'Isaac offered.' This was followed in 1860 by 'The Finding of Moses,' and by the 'Musician in the Temple' in 1861, 'The Child Jeremiah' in 1862, 'Juliett' and 'Isaac and Rebecca' in 1863, and 'A Deacon' m 1864. To the same period belong ten early drawings of Jewish festival ceremonies which prove the artist's devotion to his own faith and people. Eight designs for the 'Song of Solomon' and the same number for 'The Book of Ruth' (reproduced, like most of his work, by Mr. Hollyer) well attest his capacity and sentiment. Solomon also tried his hand at illustration for books and magazines. An etching in a 'Portfolio of Illustrations of Thomas Hood' (1858) and work in 'Once a Week' (1862) and for Dalziel's 'Bible Gallery' (1881) have importance.
Solomon's scriptural painting, which was marked by Pre-Raphaelite sincerity, poetic feeling, and beauty of colour and design, attracted attention. Thackeray credited the 'finely drawn and composed "Moses" with a great intention' {Roundabout Papers, 1860, 'Thorns in the Cushion'). The leaders of the Pre-Raphaelite school acknowledged his promise, and he early came to know D. G. Rossetti and Burne-Jones. The latter prophesied that his genius would soon prevail (cf. Life of Burne-Jones, i. 260). A charming humour, of which his art shows no sign, gave him abundant social fascination. Another early associate was Algernon Charles Swinburne, who became one of his warmest admirers and constant companions. Through Swinburne he made the acquaintance of Lord Houghton, and visited Fryston. Under such influences Solomon abandoned Hebraic themes for classical subjects, such as his 'Habet,' which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, and his 'Damon and Aglae,' in 1866. His delightful 'Bacchus' (exhibited in 1867, now in Lady Lewis's collection) brought enthusiastic laudations from Walter Pater. Other work of his evoked poetic elucidation. Swinburne's poems 'Erotion' and 'The End of the Month' were both inspired by Solomon's drawings, and three sonnets of John Payne owed their origin to the like source. His classical tastes were reinforced by visits to Italy. He was at Florence in 1866 and at Rome in 1869 with Mr. Oscar Browning. On the second occasion he wrote a mystical effusion, 'A Vision of Love revealed in Sleep' (privately printed, 1871 ; enlarged and published later in the same year). To the 'Dark Blue' in July 1871 Swinburne contributed 'Notes' of extreme praise ​(never reprinted) on Solomon's 'Vision,' crediting the artist with exceptional spiritual insight. At the same time the artist was steadily adding to his fame, not only by his oil-pictures at the Academy — 'Toilet of Roman Lady' (1869), 'Youth relating Tales to Ladies' (1870), and 'Love Bound and Wounded' (1870)— but by his pencil studies and water-colours, which were shown chiefly at the Dudley Gallery. In an article in the 'Portfolio' (March 1870) (Sir) Sidney Colvin, while praising Solomon's artistic gifts, protested against signs of sentimental weakness, which excess of eulogy was tending to aggravate. The warning had a tragic sequel. After sending 'Judith and her Attendant' to the Academy in 1872 Solomon ceased exhibiting, and his career collapsed. Through alcohol and other vicious indulgence he became 'famous for his falls.' Efforts of kinsmen and friends to help him proved of no avail. A waif of the streets, he refused commissions when they were offered him, though in an occasional drawing such as 'The Mystery of Faith,' akin to an earlier 'Rosa Mystica,' he showed that he still preserved some of his skill and cherished some of his earher mystical predilections. To the 'Hobbyhorse' (1893) he contributed 'The Study of a Medusa Head stimg by its own Snakes,' a favomite theme, with the legend — apt for his own case — 'Corruptio optimi pessima.' He found some brief consolation in visits to the Carmehte chm-ch at Kensington, and painted a number of subjects connected with the Roman rite. His main source of income in the long years of his ruin were the occasional few shillings earned by hasty drawings of a futile but, in reproductions, popular sentunentality. He tried his hand without success as a pavement artist in Bayswater. At length he became an almost habitual inmate of St. Giles's workhouse. Found insensible in Great Turnstile in May 1905, he was carried to King's College Hospital and thence to the workhouse, where he died suddenly of heart failure in the dining hall on 14 Aug. following. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Willesden. He was unmarried.
Many of his more important paintings in oil and water-colour were exhibited at Burlington House in Jan.-Feb. 1906. The pictures included 'Love in Winter' (Florence, 1866); 'The Mother of Moses' (1860); 'Hosanna!' (1861); 'A Prelude by Bach' (1868); 'The Bride' and 'The Bridegroom' (1872). Solomon's work is chiefly in private collections, including those of Miss Colman at Norwich, Mrs. Coltart, Mr. Fairfax Murray, Lady Battersea, and Mr. W. G. Rawlinson. In public collections he is represented by 'A Greek Acolyte' (1867-8) in the Birmingham Art Gallery; by several paintings in the Dublin Gallery of Modern Art; by a water-colour drawing, 'In the Temple of Venus' (1865), at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington; by 'Love dreaming by the Sea' at Aberystwyth, and by a beautiful drawing of a girl (1868) in the British Museum.
A portrait drawing by Solomon of himself (1859) is in the More-Adey collection.
[Mr. Robert Ross's essay in Masques and Phases, 1909; Millais's Life of Millais, ii. 440; Mrs. Ernestine Mills's Frederic John Shields, 1912; Mrs. Julia Ellsworth Ford's Simeon Solomon, an Appreciation, New York, 1908; Mr. Oscar Browning's Memories of Sixty Years. 1910; Grave's Roy. Academy Exhibitors; private information.]
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