"All, indeed, I look for is the picturesque, as I trust a large picture I am painting here may in some way testify. It will take me some time, as there are a great number of figures in it; and a we have only been settled here three weeks, it is not as yet more than commenced. The weather is so lovely (bright and sunny as possible, almost summer), that I hope it is likely I may make more way with my work than in London just now, in the midst of November fogs. I am wonderfully better, but still not quite well. I was so unwell on my return from Ilfracombe, that even with the advice I have respecting diet, &c. (which, I believe, is the principal), I can hardly expect to be quite rid of what you heard me complain of, and which, from my usually robust exterior, I fancy hardly called, or, indeed, could call forth the sympathy I craved for. I shall be only too glad to be quite well and say no more about it. We are capitally housed, right on the sea, which is splendid here always,--earlier in the season, particularly, when one sees, as I hear, four to five hundred fair bathers inducted into the briny ocean something in the manner my sketches attemped to delineate. I also send another sketch of 'How they teach the young idea,' not to shoot, but to walk. The construction is simple, and certainly not dangerous. The last sketch is the recollection of the only swell left here; I think her rather fine, and the costume might be imitated with advantage. The news here is not, as your may believe, plentiful. All the houses are 'a louer,' which scarcely looks cheerful; but as our art is all-interesting, it hardly affects us. With some wonderful weather, it is astonishing that the season should be over so soon. My wife finds no want of employment looking after me, obstinate as I am; wanting to work ten hours a day, when she will only let me do so half as much. Although the costume here is not specially remarkable, there is a great deal most suggestive, from which I trust to glean some little. The girls are very pretty, and most useful for my style of art,-- very Spanish, which in my large picture I have to avoid. It must be essentially French; but I hope to use that characteristic in some smaller work." A. Solomon
A personal friend of the deceased has favoured us with the following sketch of the character of the late Abraham Solomon:- The personal character of this accomplished man was in every respect admirable. He was a patter of manly virtues and simple worth. Rarely have talents so remarkable been associated with modesty so unaffected and sincere. His cheerful habit of thought, his delicate consideration for the feelings of others, his genuine kindness of heart; which shone through every feature, and made itself heard in every tone of his voice; his honesty of speech and character, were so many links in the chain which bound to him a very wide circle of friends and associates in the tie of close and friendly esteem. Those who knew him valued and loved the man not less than they admired the artist. Often such language is held in the exaggerated eulogy of one who is lose; but these are the words which all employed who spoke of Abraham Solomon during his life; these are words which will find a loud echo in the hearts of all who knew him; and there are none but will feel that this expresses the character of a man who was an honour to the family from which he sprung, to the faith to which he sincerely and devoutly adhered, and to the art which he cultivated with such success.
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