Information
Simeon Solomon was a friend and associate of Rossetti and Burne-Jones, who is said to have described him as 'the greatest artist of us all: we are all schoolboys compared with you.' Solomon enjoyed early success but his career was effectively destroyed in 1873 when his homosexuality became public knowledge.In 'Night and Sleep' Solomon symbolically expressed Sleep as a male head with poppies and wings at the brow to the left, and Night as a watchful yet sad female head whose drapery gently enfolds the two. This work is typical of the intensely personal, visionary chalk drawings which Solomon produced during his later years.The imagery of these works often derives from Solomon's prose poem, 'A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep.' In this case the figures of Night and Sleep recall this passage from the poem:'Again I raised my eyes, and saw her [Night] who had lately been revealed to us receiving the passing breath of Day; with unrelaxing gaze, and eyes from whose depths comes forth all gentleness, she watched Sleep, her beloved son; and she, to whom all was an open scroll, wept when she looked upon him whose heart was as the heart of a child.'
- Presented by Cecil F. Crofton, 1908.
- © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
Makers
Association |
Artist |
Organisation |
Artist |
Simeon Solomon |
- |
Inscriptions
Type |
Position(s) |
Method |
Date(s) |
Notes |
SS 1888 |
Monogram |
bottom left |
Handwritten |
1888 |
|
|
NIGHT AND SLEEP |
Title |
bottom centre |
Handwritten |
1888 |
Blue and red chalk |
|
Exhibitions
Catalogue No. |
Venue |
Date(s) |
Pre-Raphaelite Drawings |
- |
Lichfield |
1961-05 - 1961-06 |
|
Solomon: A Family of Painters: Abraham Solomon (1823-1862), Rebecca Solomon (1832-1886), Simeon Solomon (1840-1905) |
68 |
Geffrye Museum, London |
1985-11-08 - 1985-12-31 |
68 |
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
1986-01-18 - 1986-03-09 |
|
Androgyn: Sehnsucht nach Vollkommenheit |
- |
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin |
1986-11-17 - 1987-01-04 |
- |
Kunstverein, Hanover |
1987-02-07 - 1987-04-12 |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
113 |
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington |
1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07 |
113 |
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16 |
113 |
Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington |
1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15 |
113 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas |
1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02 |
113 |
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia |
1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10 |
113 |
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery |
1996-05-25 - 1996-09-29 |
|
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites |
135 |
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
2005-10-01 - 2006-01-15 |
135 |
Museum Villa Stuck, Munich |
2006-03-09 - 2006-06-18 |
135 |
Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art |
2006-09-11 - 2006-11-26 |
|
Literature
Author(s) |
Date(s) |
Publisher |
Pages |
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue (with descriptive notes) of the Permanent Collection of Paintings in the Art Gallery and in Aston Hall and elsewhere |
|
1909 |
- |
no. 561. |
|
The Image of the Androgyne in the Nineteenth Century |
A. J. L. Busst |
1967 |
Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd., London |
pp. 50-51. |
|
The Vision of Simeon Solomon |
Simon Reynolds |
1984 |
Catalpa Press Ltd., Stroud, Glos |
pl. 71. |
|
Solomon: A Family of Painters: Abraham Solomon (1823-1862), Rebecca Solomon (1832-1886), Simeon Solomon (1840-1905) |
Jeffery Daniels |
1985 |
Inner London Education Authority |
pp. 77-78. |
|
British Romantic Painting |
Raymond Lister |
1989 |
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge |
no. 75. |
|
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England |
Stephen Wildman |
1995 |
Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia |
p. 320. |
|
Evelyn Pickering de Morgan and the Allegorical Body |
Elise Lawton Smith |
2002 |
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison, N.J. and Associated University Presses, London |
fig. 63, p. 138; p. 135. |
|
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites |
Colin Cruise |
2005 |
Merrell, London and New York |
p. 170. |
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