Dr Roberto C. Ferrari
I am the original creator of the Simeon Solomon Research Archive. I hold a Ph.D. in Art History from the CUNY Graduate Center, where I specialized in European and American art 1750-1900, with a focus on nineteenth-century British painting and sculpture. I also hold an M.L.S. degree and currently am employed by Columbia University as the Curator of Art Properties in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library. I have presented conference papers on Solomon at College Art Association, Modern Language Association, and Southern British Studies meetings, as well as at Carolyn Conroy's 'Solomon Symposium', and have published articles on Solomon in journals such as Notes and Queries and Ravenna. My ongoing Solomon work includes researching the extant correspondence of Simeon and his siblings. I also blog at bklynbiblio.
When I was in graduate school working on my Master of Liberal Arts degree and conducting research on Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne, I became intrigued by the story of Simeon Solomon, specifically his artistic promise and his proverbial fall from grace. I immediately started delving more into Solomon, and discovered that very little had been written on him in recent years. This was the impetus for me to start researching Solomon myself, and I started to obtain every bit of information on him I could find. This gradually lead to the creation of an annotated bibliography for which I received great encouragement from my mentors (Dr. Daniel Rutenberg and Dr. Nancy Tyson) in Victorian studies at the University of South Florida. Seven years of research later eventually lead to the publication of my research in The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, and the following year the first version of this website. I am still fascinated by Solomon and his work. As an individual, I see Solomon as a man who found it difficult to deal with his homosexuality as a youth, but his interaction with the more sexually liberated Pre-Raphaelites such as Swinburne, Rossetti, and Burne-Jones eventually allowed him to blossom both artistically and personally. The strictures of a society which did not understand him eventually turned on him when he was caught in a sexually-based offense. Thereafter, Solomon decided to forego social acceptance in favor of living his life his own way, and despite being never fully appreciated again during his lifetime, he still managed to be prolific and continue to live his lifestyle as he saw fit. His artwork itself is admirable. His early Judaic illustrations and paintings are beautiful renditions that reflect the early years of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, but his later works of the 1860s through the 1880s demonstrate Solomon's importance to the Aesthetic and Symbolist movements. He developed his own symbolic language in the form of angelic youths whose androgyny was key to their own innate beauty. Despite most poor commentary on the excessive emotions of his prose poem A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep, I find the work expressive of symbolism that reflects the works of poets such as Arthur Rimbaud who spoke their true emotional feelings best when using symbols. |
Dr Carolyn Conroy
I became involved with the Simeon Solomon Research Archive in February 2010, when I redesigned the site in collaboration with Roberto Ferrari. I am now the primary editor. I began researching Solomon's post-1873 life in 2004 at the University of York, England. My Masters dissertation focused on an examination of Solomon's arrest documents in both London and Paris, and I received a York Society Trust grant to pursue this research at the Archives de Paris and the Archives de la Préfecture de Police de Paris. In 2005 I received an Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Grant to pursue my Ph.D. research on Solomon at the University of York which I completed in 2009. The title of my thesis is: '"He hath Mingled with the Ungodly": the Life of Simeon Solomon after 1873 with a Survey of the Extant Work'. You can download and read it HERE. My thesis explores, in two volumes, Solomon's life after his arrest for attempted sodomy in 1873, and makes a new evaluation of the artist's life and artistic output, using newly discovered visual and textual archival sources.
I previously taught on the History of Art, Masters degree programme at the University of York, teaching Pre-Raphaelite/Victorian Art and research skills courses and was formerly the Department's Partnerships Administrator. In addition, I have worked extensively as a research consultant for organisations such as Yale University. Recently I collaborated with curators at the National Trust's Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton to produce three videos about Simeon Solomon and the historic house's collection of Solomon works. You can view them here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wightwick-manor-and-gardens/features/simeon-solomon-explored I was previously the Pre-Raphaelite Society's Membership Secretary and was involved in the Heritage Lottery Funded African Stories in Hull and East Yorkshire Project and the Galkoff's and the Secret Life of Pembroke Place project for the Museum of Liverpool. My other academic interests include nineteenth-century British painting, particularly the Pre-Raphaelite and Aesthetic movements; Victorian culture, photography and the work of Frederick Hollyer, and more generally the history of homosexuality; social history of Victorian London, particularly workhouses, prisons, asylums, social philanthropy and 'slumming'. |
We hope that with the continued publication of this website more individuals can learn to appreciate and respect Solomon, and perhaps more research can be conducted on this figure who still eludes art historians and Victorian scholars unsure of where he fits in the milieu of his time.
Our work and publications on Simeon, Abraham and Rebecca Solomon
Conroy C. & Ferrari, R. C. (eds), 'Special Edition on Simeon Solomon', PRS Review, Vol. XXVII, No. 3, (Autumn, 2020).
Ferrari, R. C. 'Pre-Raphaelite Portraitist: Simeon Solomon's Early Portrait Drawings’ PRS Review, Vol. XXVII, No. 3, (Autumn, 2020), pp. 30-40.
Conroy, C. ‘Saints and Demons: Unexplored Drawings by Simeon Solomon in the Ashmolean Museum Collection’ PRS Review, Vol. XXVII, No. 3, (Autumn, 2020), pp. 72-81.
Conroy, C. ‘The Works of Simeon Solomon in the Hugh Lane Gallery,’ in Jessica O'Donnell (Ed.), Hugh Lane: That Great Pictured Song, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, (2017), pp. 64-79.
Conroy, C. ‘Images of Desire: Twenty Sketches by Simeon Solomon,’ PRS Review, Vol. XXIV, No. 3, (Autumn, 2016), pp. 28-43.
Conroy, C. ‘Mingling with the Ungodly: Simeon Solomon in Queer London,’ in Simon Avery and Katherine Graham (Eds), Sex, Time and Place: Queer Histories of London, c.1850 to the Present. (Bloomsbury, 2016), pp. 185-201.
Ferrari, R. C. “Fanny Eaton: The ‘Other’ Pre-Raphaelite Model.” PRS Review 22.2 (Summer 2014): 3-19.
Conroy, C. “The Simeon Solomon Research Archive: Reflections on Thirteen Years,” PRSUS: Pre-Raphaelite Society Newsletter of the United States – 25th Anniversary Edition (2014).
Conroy, C. “The Simeon Solomon Research Archive Online.” PRSUS: Pre-Raphaelite Society Newsletter of the United States (January, 2012).
Ferrari, R. C. & C. Conroy. "Simeon Solomon's Shame-Free Art." Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide 18, no. 5 (2011): pp18-20.
Ferrari, R. C. Simeon Solomon in Italy: The First Trip, 1866-1867, (2009) http://www.oscholars.com/Ravenna/Ravenna1/Simeon_Solomon.htm Last Accessed16 March 2018.
Conroy, C. "'He Hath Mingled with the Ungodly' : The Life of Simeon Solomon after 1873, with a Survey of the Extant Works." PhD Thesis, University of York, 2009.
Ferrari, R. C. "The Simeon Solomon Research Archive: Reflections on Seven Years." PRSUS: The Pre-Raphaelite Society Newsletter of the United States, 18 (Winter 2007): 1-2.
Ferrari, R. C. "Pre-Raphaelite Patronage: Simeon Solomon's Letters to James Leathart and Frederick Leyland." In Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites, edited by C Cruise, 47-55. London: Merrell Publishing Ltd, 2005.
Ferrari, R. C. "To the Rossettis, from the Solomons: Five Unpublished Letters." Notes and Queries 52, no. 1 (March 2005): 70-75.
Ferrari, R. C. “Rebecca Solomon, Pre-Raphaelite Sister.” The Review of the Pre-Raphaelite Society 12.2
(Summer 2004): 23-36.
Ferrari, R. C. "The Unexplored Correspondence of Simeon Solomon." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 12 (Spring 2003): 23-34.
Ferrari, R. C. "From Sodomite to Queer Icon: Simeon Solomon and the Evolution of Gay Studies." Art Documentation 20, no. 1 (Spring 2001): 11-13.
Ferrari, R. C. "Simeon Solomon: A Bibliographic Study." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 8 (Spring 1999): 69-90.