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emma_in_dreamColin Cruise (Ed), Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites (2005)
Solomon is one of my favourite painters. I love the lushness of Pre-Raphaelite art but I get sick, after a while, of looking at pictures of languid women painted by men.* Solomon painted pictures of languid men in the classic Pre-Raphaelite way - all with long necks, sad faces, piles of hair. (Seriously, Google some of the images).
Solomon was regarded as a very promising artist (the word genius was used in a lot of reviews) when he was caught soliciting in a public toilet in 1873. He was fined, eventually imprisoned on a similar charge, cast out of all good society, went into exile, came back and wound up an alcoholic in the poor house.
His art was recognised as having a queer sensibility at the time. Wilde lamented the loss of his Solomons when his goods were sold during his bankruptcy; others write of having prints on their walls at Oxford which had to come down when parents visited.
This book came out of an exhibition in Birmingham (a Pre-Raphaelite centre of art collection) in 2005. I was so excited when I read the review of the exhibition that I ordered it straight from the gallery, the first comprehensive book on his art I had found. It has a massive collection of his paintings, and images of other Pre-Raphaelite works for comparative purposes.
* Though, in point of fact, there were women in the broader Pre-Raphaelite school. See: http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/flaming.html
Solomon is one of my favourite painters. I love the lushness of Pre-Raphaelite art but I get sick, after a while, of looking at pictures of languid women painted by men.* Solomon painted pictures of languid men in the classic Pre-Raphaelite way - all with long necks, sad faces, piles of hair. (Seriously, Google some of the images).
Solomon was regarded as a very promising artist (the word genius was used in a lot of reviews) when he was caught soliciting in a public toilet in 1873. He was fined, eventually imprisoned on a similar charge, cast out of all good society, went into exile, came back and wound up an alcoholic in the poor house.
His art was recognised as having a queer sensibility at the time. Wilde lamented the loss of his Solomons when his goods were sold during his bankruptcy; others write of having prints on their walls at Oxford which had to come down when parents visited.
This book came out of an exhibition in Birmingham (a Pre-Raphaelite centre of art collection) in 2005. I was so excited when I read the review of the exhibition that I ordered it straight from the gallery, the first comprehensive book on his art I had found. It has a massive collection of his paintings, and images of other Pre-Raphaelite works for comparative purposes.
* Though, in point of fact, there were women in the broader Pre-Raphaelite school. See: http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/flaming.html
