Information

Solomon's earliest work is mostly confined to biblical compositions, usually treating subjects of Jewish history. He was a natural choice to provide illustrations for the 'Bible Gallery', an ambitious project of a hundred or more wood engravings conceived by the brothers Dalziel in 1859. This extraordinary drawing was much too risque for that purpose, and was exhibited separately at the French Gallery Winter Exhibition in 1859. It illustrates a passage in Jeremiah containing the prophet's lamentation over the Jewish people's captivity under the kingdom of Babylon: 'Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of God, which hath made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore all the nations are mad.'When this drawing entered the Birmingham Collection it was known as 'King David' and was thought to depict the maiden, Abishag, ministering to the aged king (1 Kings 1:1-4). Gayle Seymour, in her PhD thesis, 'The Life and Work of Simeon Solomon (1840-1905)', identified the drawing as the one exhibited at the French Gallery, London, in 1859, with the catalogue entry quoted above.

  • Presented by the Alfred Leadbeater Bequest Fund, 1925.
  • © Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery

Makers

Association Artist Organisation
Artist Simeon Solomon -

Inscriptions

Type Position(s) Method Date(s) Notes
SS 9 59
Monogram bottom left Handwritten 1859-09
 

Exhibitions

Catalogue No. Venue Date(s)
7th Annual Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures, Sketches and Drawings
143 French Gallery, London 1859-11-12 - 1859-11-12
 
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England
52 Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington 1995-03-09 - 1995-05-07
52 Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio 1995-05-27 - 1995-07-16
52 Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware 1995-08-11 - 1995-10-15
52 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1995-11-04 - 1996-01-02
52 High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia 1996-01-23 - 1996-04-10
52 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 1996-05-25 - 1996-09-29
 
Exposed: The Victorian Nude
78 Tate Britain, London 2001-11-01 - 2002-01-27
78 Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany 2002-03-01 - 2002-06-02
78 Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, U.S.A. 2002-09-06 - 2003-01-05
 
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites
17 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 2005-10-01 - 2006-01-15
17 Museum Villa Stuck, Munich 2006-03-09 - 2006-06-18
17 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: Catalogue of the Permanent Collection of Drawings
A E Whitley 1939 Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., Derby p. 401.
 
Abraham Solomon, Painter of Fashion, and Simeon Solomon, Decadent Artist
Lionel Lambourne 1968 The Jewish Historical Society of England, London pl. 24, fig. 10, p. 278; p. 280.
 
The Vision of Simeon Solomon
Simon Reynolds 1984 Catalpa Press Ltd., Stroud, Glos pl. 16; p. 11.
 
A Vision of Love: Homosexual and Androgynous Themes in Simeon Solomon's Work after 1873
Emmanuel Cooper 1985 Inner London Education Authority pl. xxi, p. 32; p. 31.
 
The Life and Work of Simeon Solomon 1840-1905
Gayle Seymour 1986 University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan fig. 48, p. 271; pp. 48-50.
 
Visions of Love and Life: Pre-Raphaelite Art from the Birmingham Collection, England
Stephen Wildman 1995 Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia no. 52, p. 187; pp. 185-186.
 
The Pre-Raphaelite nude
Alison Smith 1997 Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Aldershot pp. 83-84.
 
Simeon Solomon: A Drama of Desire
Colin Cruise Autumn 1998 The Jewish Quarterly p. 63; pp. 65-67.
 
Exposed: The Victorian Nude
Alison Smith 2001 Tate Publishing, London p. 155.
 
Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites
Colin Cruise 2005 Merrell, London and New York p. 77.
 
The Old Testament Paintings and Drawings: The Search for Identity in the Post-Emancipation Era
Gayle Seymour 2005 Merrell, London and New York pp. 17-18.

Provenance

Purchased (Alfred Leadbeater Bequest Fund), 1925.

Associated people

Name Type
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Inspired by

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