Rebecca Solomon: Secondary Sources Full Text
“The Royal Academy. The Exhibition, 1854.” The Art-Journal, 1 June 1854: 157-172.
No. 425. "The Governess," Miss M. {sic} Solomon. The composition has been suggested by a passage in Martin Tupper’s “Proverbial Philosophy,” and it tells two stories which are pointedly contrasted. A young lady and a youth are engaged in a flirtation at a piano, while a governess is plodding in weary sadness through a lesson with a very inattentive pupil. The tales are told with expressive perspicuity. (p.167)
"Spending a Sou." Illustrated London News, 4 December 1858: 518-519.
"SPENDING A SOU.” BY MISS REBECCA SOLOMONS. {sic}
Miss Rebecca Solomons has a very telling little picture in the Winter Exhibition, Pall-mall, entitled “Spending a Sou,” of which we give an Engraving. It has obviously been studied from real life in the market-place of some little town in the north of France. There sits the venerable fruitwoman, under her capacious umbrella of dubious plum-coloured cotton. Her wares have tempted a small child in quaint attire, and with close skullcap on her little round head, after the fashion of the country, and who is about to make a purchase, determined to have her sou’s worth for her sou. Near at hand is the child’s mother, who piles her distaff as she walks; and nearer the spectator the young lady’s brother, whose hands dive hopelessly into his pockets, which, alas! are empty. This is of a class of works which are sure to find admirers amongst young and old. (p.518)
"The Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1859: 377.
By Rebecca Solomon there are two works, entitled, ‘Reading for Pluck,’ and ‘Reading for Honours,’ in the latter of which we see a gownsman, who conducts his reading upon the principle that the proper study of mankind is woman: both are spirited pictures. ... By Simeon Solomon, ‘David playing before Saul’ (No. 146) is a careful composition.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition: The Ninety-Second, 1860." The Art-Journal, 1 June 1860: 161-172.
No. 269. ‘Peg Woffington’s Visit to Triplet,’ Miss R. Solomon. This is really a picture of great power, and in execution so firm and masculine that it would scarcely be pronounced the work of a lady. The subject is from Charles Reade’s “Peg Woffington.” The heroine visits Triplet and his family, in the words of Triplet himself, “Coming like sunshine into poor men’s houses, and turning drooping hearts to daylight and hope.” It is gratifying, encouraging, and full of hope, to find a picture so admirably painted by a lady; it is, moreover, the offspring of thought and intelligence, as well as study and labour. The artist was not content to seek a theme on trodden ways, but sought, and found it, where she might obtain evidence of originality as well as power. She adds another name to the many who receive honour as great women of the age. (p.168)
No. 346. 'Moses,' S. Solomon. There is an oppressive influence in this work that sinks the spirits; there is no ray of hope to point to a glorious future for the infant, whom his mother is about to commit to the thin basket held by his sister. The heads are rather Egyptian than Jewish; they seem to have been painted from the same model. Being mother and daughter, a certain degree of likeness is allowable, but they are too distinctly identical. Jochebed is too poorly clad; every credit, however, is due to the artist for the style of the apparel of both figures. (p.169)
"Exhibition of the Royal Academy [continued]." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1861: 193-198.
The ‘Young Musician,’ &c., of S. Solomon, No. 493, is a work of higher finish, and of almost infinitely higher and purer feeling, than either of those just noticed [J. Brett's Warwick Castle and H. Wallis's Elaine]; and although deficient in colour, it is redolent of deep and pious feeling. (p.196)
No. 581, ‘The Arrest of a Deserter,’ Miss R. Solomon, is a clever picture, and, in all respects, most creditable to the lady artist; but it is not quite equal to ‘Peg Woffington,’ exhibited by Miss Solomon last year, which was an extraordinary picture for character. (p.197)
"General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings." The Art-Journal, 1 April 1865: 111.
The human figure — which demands closer study than landscape — does not obtain justice at the hands of the tyros within these walls. For the most part, the figure drawings in this exhibition confess to a timid, uncertain hand, wanting the guidance of knowledge. A few of the more conspicuous attempts may be passed in review. Miss Rebecca Solomon, in ‘Hypatia’ (221), has hit upon a manner which does not fail to arouse attention. The stately stiffness in the heroine’s bearing, has quite the air of originality. In ‘Prima Vera’ (255), this artist has been haunted with reminiscences of the style of Mr. Leighton. More power over the figure is shown in ‘Antinuous Dionysiacus’ (239), by S. Solomon.
"The Fourth General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings. Dudley Gallery." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1868: 45.
Eccentricity has always distinguished the Dudley Gallery. And what can be more singular and abnormal than the productions—clever withal—of Simeon Solomon, Spencer Stanhope, C. P. Slocombe, C. Rossiter, A. B. Donaldson, and H. E. Wooldridge? Solomon is a genius of eccentricity, he can do nothing like other people, and in being exclusively like himself, he becomes unlike to nature. As for choice of subject, most religions of the world have struck by turns the painter’s fantastic and splendour-loving fancy. On the present occasion ‘Bacchus,’ ‘A Patriarch of the Eastern Church,’ and ‘Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun,’ obtain from the painter about equal favour, whether as to ritual, robes, or anatomies. The latter, however, would not be recognized by the College of Surgeons. ‘Bacchus’ is a sentimentalist of rather weak constitution; he drinks mead, possibly sugar and water, certainly not wine. The idea is that the young fellow is the inspirer of Art and Poetry, the beloved of the Muses; and the painter, it must be confessed, has thrown over his work a certain aroma of poetry and colour. The background is in scale and management false, yet on the whole the picture possesses, as we have said, unmistakable signs of genius, only run a little mad. ... Opposed to the classic is the mediaeval; each is found in ultra form in the Dudley Gallery. Indeed, there are artists, such, for example, as Simeon Solomon, who are divided equally between the two opinions, and thus on either horn of the dilemma they fall far short of nature. ... The works of Miss Solomon are always clever and frequently singular; ‘Memories’ recall, indeed, past memories of the lady’s pictures in intensity of colour, earnest striving for a meaning, and general eccentricity of treatment.
"Dudley Gallery. Cabinet Pictures in Oils. The Second Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1868: 280.
’A Study from Nature,’ by Miss Solomon, is brilliant for light, colour, and transparency; we do not often in these days encounter a more felicitous attempt at flesh-painting. ‘A Roman Lady,’ by Simeon Solomon, is not of the artist’s best.
"The Royal Academy. The One Hundred and First Exhibition. Second Notice." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1869: 201.
... ‘The Toilette of a Roman Lady’ (787), by Simeon Solomon. The last work should have obtained a better place than in a corner above the line. ... Again, wholly distinct in style from any of the three classic works just mentioned [Watts’s Orpheus & Eurydice, Leighton’s Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, and A. Moore’s A Venus] comes ‘The Toilette of a Roman Lady’ (787), by Mr. Simeon Solomon. This remarkable composition, unlike the figures of Mr. Moore and Mr. Leighton, evinces joy and rapture in colour; the romance of modern and middle-age Art has infused warm tone, and swelling exuberant form, into the severity of the classic. Mr. Solomon has evidently received as a suggestion to his picture certain well-known mural paintings of Pompeii; we recognise analogous types even to the full, thick, Roman throat. The style is somewhat decorative, and pertains to periods of decadence; nevertheless, this is one of the artist’s very best efforts; it has more power and firmness than drawings recently exhibited in the Dudley Gallery. Close by hangs a refined subtle work, distinguished by colour, ‘Helena and Hermia’ (785), by Miss R. Solomon; the manner of brother and sister naturally is not wholly unlike.
"The Dudley Gallery. Egyptian Hall." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1872: 309.
So entirely now does painting take its themes from domestic sources, that mythology, and even poetry, are but little referred to. There is, however, another mythological conceit, ‘Autumn Love’ (96), Simeon Solomon, but so enigmatical as to leave us in doubt as to its reading. The Cupid of the piece is not the chubby child commonly pictured by painters and sung by poets, but a well-grown youth passing through a thicket, subject to the inconveniences of a cold wind which whirls aloft the now sere and yellow leaves. It may, or may not, be the solution of life the riddle that love is cold in the autumn of life: under any circumstances the question is scarcely worth propounding as a riddle. ... On the two screens are some small pictures ... are a few paintings of merit, by ... Miss Solomon, ...
No. 425. "The Governess," Miss M. {sic} Solomon. The composition has been suggested by a passage in Martin Tupper’s “Proverbial Philosophy,” and it tells two stories which are pointedly contrasted. A young lady and a youth are engaged in a flirtation at a piano, while a governess is plodding in weary sadness through a lesson with a very inattentive pupil. The tales are told with expressive perspicuity. (p.167)
"Spending a Sou." Illustrated London News, 4 December 1858: 518-519.
"SPENDING A SOU.” BY MISS REBECCA SOLOMONS. {sic}
Miss Rebecca Solomons has a very telling little picture in the Winter Exhibition, Pall-mall, entitled “Spending a Sou,” of which we give an Engraving. It has obviously been studied from real life in the market-place of some little town in the north of France. There sits the venerable fruitwoman, under her capacious umbrella of dubious plum-coloured cotton. Her wares have tempted a small child in quaint attire, and with close skullcap on her little round head, after the fashion of the country, and who is about to make a purchase, determined to have her sou’s worth for her sou. Near at hand is the child’s mother, who piles her distaff as she walks; and nearer the spectator the young lady’s brother, whose hands dive hopelessly into his pockets, which, alas! are empty. This is of a class of works which are sure to find admirers amongst young and old. (p.518)
"The Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1859: 377.
By Rebecca Solomon there are two works, entitled, ‘Reading for Pluck,’ and ‘Reading for Honours,’ in the latter of which we see a gownsman, who conducts his reading upon the principle that the proper study of mankind is woman: both are spirited pictures. ... By Simeon Solomon, ‘David playing before Saul’ (No. 146) is a careful composition.
"The Royal Academy Exhibition: The Ninety-Second, 1860." The Art-Journal, 1 June 1860: 161-172.
No. 269. ‘Peg Woffington’s Visit to Triplet,’ Miss R. Solomon. This is really a picture of great power, and in execution so firm and masculine that it would scarcely be pronounced the work of a lady. The subject is from Charles Reade’s “Peg Woffington.” The heroine visits Triplet and his family, in the words of Triplet himself, “Coming like sunshine into poor men’s houses, and turning drooping hearts to daylight and hope.” It is gratifying, encouraging, and full of hope, to find a picture so admirably painted by a lady; it is, moreover, the offspring of thought and intelligence, as well as study and labour. The artist was not content to seek a theme on trodden ways, but sought, and found it, where she might obtain evidence of originality as well as power. She adds another name to the many who receive honour as great women of the age. (p.168)
No. 346. 'Moses,' S. Solomon. There is an oppressive influence in this work that sinks the spirits; there is no ray of hope to point to a glorious future for the infant, whom his mother is about to commit to the thin basket held by his sister. The heads are rather Egyptian than Jewish; they seem to have been painted from the same model. Being mother and daughter, a certain degree of likeness is allowable, but they are too distinctly identical. Jochebed is too poorly clad; every credit, however, is due to the artist for the style of the apparel of both figures. (p.169)
"Exhibition of the Royal Academy [continued]." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1861: 193-198.
The ‘Young Musician,’ &c., of S. Solomon, No. 493, is a work of higher finish, and of almost infinitely higher and purer feeling, than either of those just noticed [J. Brett's Warwick Castle and H. Wallis's Elaine]; and although deficient in colour, it is redolent of deep and pious feeling. (p.196)
No. 581, ‘The Arrest of a Deserter,’ Miss R. Solomon, is a clever picture, and, in all respects, most creditable to the lady artist; but it is not quite equal to ‘Peg Woffington,’ exhibited by Miss Solomon last year, which was an extraordinary picture for character. (p.197)
"General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings." The Art-Journal, 1 April 1865: 111.
The human figure — which demands closer study than landscape — does not obtain justice at the hands of the tyros within these walls. For the most part, the figure drawings in this exhibition confess to a timid, uncertain hand, wanting the guidance of knowledge. A few of the more conspicuous attempts may be passed in review. Miss Rebecca Solomon, in ‘Hypatia’ (221), has hit upon a manner which does not fail to arouse attention. The stately stiffness in the heroine’s bearing, has quite the air of originality. In ‘Prima Vera’ (255), this artist has been haunted with reminiscences of the style of Mr. Leighton. More power over the figure is shown in ‘Antinuous Dionysiacus’ (239), by S. Solomon.
"The Fourth General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings. Dudley Gallery." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1868: 45.
Eccentricity has always distinguished the Dudley Gallery. And what can be more singular and abnormal than the productions—clever withal—of Simeon Solomon, Spencer Stanhope, C. P. Slocombe, C. Rossiter, A. B. Donaldson, and H. E. Wooldridge? Solomon is a genius of eccentricity, he can do nothing like other people, and in being exclusively like himself, he becomes unlike to nature. As for choice of subject, most religions of the world have struck by turns the painter’s fantastic and splendour-loving fancy. On the present occasion ‘Bacchus,’ ‘A Patriarch of the Eastern Church,’ and ‘Heliogabalus, High Priest of the Sun,’ obtain from the painter about equal favour, whether as to ritual, robes, or anatomies. The latter, however, would not be recognized by the College of Surgeons. ‘Bacchus’ is a sentimentalist of rather weak constitution; he drinks mead, possibly sugar and water, certainly not wine. The idea is that the young fellow is the inspirer of Art and Poetry, the beloved of the Muses; and the painter, it must be confessed, has thrown over his work a certain aroma of poetry and colour. The background is in scale and management false, yet on the whole the picture possesses, as we have said, unmistakable signs of genius, only run a little mad. ... Opposed to the classic is the mediaeval; each is found in ultra form in the Dudley Gallery. Indeed, there are artists, such, for example, as Simeon Solomon, who are divided equally between the two opinions, and thus on either horn of the dilemma they fall far short of nature. ... The works of Miss Solomon are always clever and frequently singular; ‘Memories’ recall, indeed, past memories of the lady’s pictures in intensity of colour, earnest striving for a meaning, and general eccentricity of treatment.
"Dudley Gallery. Cabinet Pictures in Oils. The Second Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1868: 280.
’A Study from Nature,’ by Miss Solomon, is brilliant for light, colour, and transparency; we do not often in these days encounter a more felicitous attempt at flesh-painting. ‘A Roman Lady,’ by Simeon Solomon, is not of the artist’s best.
"The Royal Academy. The One Hundred and First Exhibition. Second Notice." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1869: 201.
... ‘The Toilette of a Roman Lady’ (787), by Simeon Solomon. The last work should have obtained a better place than in a corner above the line. ... Again, wholly distinct in style from any of the three classic works just mentioned [Watts’s Orpheus & Eurydice, Leighton’s Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, and A. Moore’s A Venus] comes ‘The Toilette of a Roman Lady’ (787), by Mr. Simeon Solomon. This remarkable composition, unlike the figures of Mr. Moore and Mr. Leighton, evinces joy and rapture in colour; the romance of modern and middle-age Art has infused warm tone, and swelling exuberant form, into the severity of the classic. Mr. Solomon has evidently received as a suggestion to his picture certain well-known mural paintings of Pompeii; we recognise analogous types even to the full, thick, Roman throat. The style is somewhat decorative, and pertains to periods of decadence; nevertheless, this is one of the artist’s very best efforts; it has more power and firmness than drawings recently exhibited in the Dudley Gallery. Close by hangs a refined subtle work, distinguished by colour, ‘Helena and Hermia’ (785), by Miss R. Solomon; the manner of brother and sister naturally is not wholly unlike.
"The Dudley Gallery. Egyptian Hall." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1872: 309.
So entirely now does painting take its themes from domestic sources, that mythology, and even poetry, are but little referred to. There is, however, another mythological conceit, ‘Autumn Love’ (96), Simeon Solomon, but so enigmatical as to leave us in doubt as to its reading. The Cupid of the piece is not the chubby child commonly pictured by painters and sung by poets, but a well-grown youth passing through a thicket, subject to the inconveniences of a cold wind which whirls aloft the now sere and yellow leaves. It may, or may not, be the solution of life the riddle that love is cold in the autumn of life: under any circumstances the question is scarcely worth propounding as a riddle. ... On the two screens are some small pictures ... are a few paintings of merit, by ... Miss Solomon, ...