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Simeon |
My name is Roberto C. Ferrari, and I am the creator of the Simeon Solomon Research Archive. Until a few years ago, I was an Associate University Librarian at Florida Atlantic University, where among my many duties, I was the art information specialist. I am currently a graduate student at the CUNY Graduate Center working towards my Ph.D. in Art History, and an Associate Museum Librarian at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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.
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.
It is my hope that with the publication of this web site 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.
If you have any comments or questions regarding this web site or its contents, please feel free to contact me by email at roberto@simeonsolomon.org.
This web site was created by Roberto C. Ferrari and is therefore copyrighted by law. All digital images were reproduced with the permission of the owners; distribution rights for these works rests with the individuals who own the original work of art. All secondary source material reproduced here is protected by copyright with the author or publisher of the original source. The only exception to this rule are the items made available that are in the public domain. The rules of fair use apply if you wish to use any information from this site for non-profit educational purposes. If you have any questions, please contact the author of this web site.