Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon And the Pre-raphaelites

by Victoria Osborne, Colin Cruise, Debra N. Mancoff

The first major survey of Simeon Solomon's varied and dramatic career reconsiders the artist's life and work, his relationship to Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism and his influence on late 19th century art. Six introductory essays, written by experts, provide new insights into his key works and their contexts, while the plates reproduce paintings and drawings rarely seen since their first showing. This study provides a full assessment of Solomon's work in oil and watercolour, drawing and illustration, and also re-appraises works by his friends and associates, among them Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones. Solomon introduced themes of sexual desire into British painting, charging it with a new poetry and sensuality, and this volume offers a unique opportunity to rediscover what Oscar Wilde called the 'strange genius' of an extraordinary outsider of British art. Black & white and colour.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2005

Reviews

[Ray's Artshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cruise's richly illustrated book is the companion to the first-rate centenary exhibition of Solomon's work held in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in 2005, and it's a gem. The breadth of scholarship means that each chapter focuses on different aspects of his artistic vision - treating his classicism, his Jewish subjects, the homoerotic, etc. - and brings out so many details that add to the reader's understanding of this once-neglected painter. (I particularly loved the extracts from letters between Solomon and his patrons, which I hadn't seen in print before. These are discussed with attention - a marvellous reading.)

This approach is a great corrective to the impression given by a later Tate exhibition, which sought to put Solomon solely into a Queer pigeon hole, giving no room to nuanced discussion of his religious and "aesthetic" domestic subjects. To overlook these in order to foreground his homosexuality alone - even admitting the great influence this has over the sensuousness of his work - is yet another injustice for this singular artist. His life and sexuality are of course discussed in this book, and with excellent material on later nineteenth-century panic about perceived unmanliness, especially with reference to Rome. The consideration of Solomon's friendships with other artists, Albert Moore among them, and with writers such as Pater and Swinburne, also helps the reader to see the totality of the man. I visited the centenary exhibition twice (Simeon Solomon is a personal hero for me) and the catalogue is a thoughtful and stimulating companion, or after-comer, and bears re-reading.

The reproductions are of a very good quality, with plenty of details enlarged to full-page size so you can appreciate Solomon's facility in watercolour especially. Some (adorable!) juvenilia are included, superb critical notes, etc. Highly recommended for lovers of myrtles, winged youth and painted ritual.

[Larry-bob Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queer Pre-Raphaelite painter, recommended by Matmos. I went and looked at the SF Public Library's copy. I'm pretty partial to Pre-Raphaelite art and photography anyway, and it's an extra bonus that Simeon Solomon was queer. Solomon was also Jewish, and many of his early paintings illustrate stories from the Torah and religious rituals. At a certain point he adds in classical themes and allegories, and there are paintings for instance of Sappho and Erinna (google that) and of gatherings of people where there are female-female and male-male couples. There's a painting of a winged figure of love speaking to a group of schoolboys who are embracing each other.

Everything came crashing down after Solomon was arrested in a public toilet and he was put on trial. The last 30 years of his life were affected by this, and he was at times homeless or in the poorhouse. Oscar Wilde remained a fan, and after Wilde's imprisonment, drawings by Solomon that he had were auctioned.

The book contains essays by various writers about different aspects of Solomon's art and life. I spent quite a while reading it and looking at the art at the library, and would like to have my own copy.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to Solomon and his association with the PRB, including lots of gorgeous illustrations.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I did a lot of skimming and looking at the pictures here. But I am impressed by the number of works reprinted here. And what I saw of the essays suggests that this is a nice, well-researched, well-written collection of material on an obscure but interesting painter.