NEW § "Fine Arts: Royal Academy." Athenaeum, 15 May 1858: 628-629.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
My thanks to Thomas J. Tobin for informing me of this review.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: Provided by Thomas J. Tobin on his web site The Pre-Raphaelite Critic: [1858.115]

§ Rossetti, William Michael. "The Fine Arts of 1858—Oil Pictures." Saturday Review, 5 (15 May 1858): 502.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
My thanks to Thomas J. Tobin for informing me of this review.

§ Rossetti, William Michael. "Winter Exhibition of Cabinet Pictures, &c." The Spectator, 6 November 1858: 1172.

NEW § "Fine Arts: The Winter Exhibition." Athenaeum, 19 November 1859: 673.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
My thanks to Thomas J. Tobin for informing me of this review.

§ "The Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1859: 377.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Rev. of the Royal Academy Exhibit. Athenaeum, 19 May 1860: 688-690.

ANNOTATION:
Solomon's second contribution to the Royal Academy has been called Mother of Moses, Moses in His Mother's Arms, or simply Moses. The subject is portrayed as "an exaggerated Jewish type."
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

"The Royal Academy Exhibition: The Ninety-Second, 1860." The Art-Journal, 1 June 1860: 169.

ANNOTATION:
This single-paragraph review refers to his work as having "an oppressive influence ... that sinks the spirits."
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Stephens, F. G. "The Royal Academy." Macmillan’s Magazine, 2 June 1860: 157-164.

ANNOTATION:
Stephens criticizes the dark tones of the skin of the subjects, but sees their faces as "full of expression and characteristic tenderness," and compliments Solomon's use of colour, texture, and layout.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Thackeray, William Makepeace. "Roundabout Papers (V): Thorns in a Cushion." Cornhill Magazine, 2 (July 1860): 122-128.

ANNOTATION:
Thackeray's jocular account of opposing viewpoints regarding the same image cites Solomon's Mother of Moses as an example. While he finds the painting pleasing and true to life, he cites the negative review it received in an unnamed magazine, since identified as the Westminster Gazette.
REPRINTED:
In The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1868-1869.

§ "Exhibition of the Royal Academy [continued]." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1861: 196.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "Jewish Ceremonies, by Mr. S. Solomon." The Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer, 1 August 1862: 8.

ANNOTATION:
This is a review of A Series of Photographs after Drawings of Jewish Ceremonials, by Simeon Solomon (Publishers, Cundall, Downes and Co. 168, New Bond-street, London). The reviewer is disappointed by the illustrations he had believed would better represent Judaic religious traditions. Despite the negative criticism, the reviewer acknowledges in the end that Solomon has enormous talent for "truth and depth of feeling...how much soul he can throw into" Jewish subjects.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version] [PDF Version]

§ "General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings." The Art-Journal, 1 April 1865: 111.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "Fine Arts: Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News, 13 May 1865: 451.

ANNOTATION:
The reviewer is disappointed by Habet! and Burgess's Bravo Toro! because both are lacking in "moral intention." Solomon's work is further criticized for poor technical details.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The Royal Academy." The Art-Journal, 1 June 1865: 161-172.

ANNOTATION:
The reviewer comments negatively on Habet!, calling it essentially an unsuccessful work.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ Swinburne, Algernon Charles. "Erotion." Poems and Ballads. London: Moxon & Co., 1866.

ANNOTATION:
Swinburne wrote this poem based on Solomon's picture Damon and Aglae.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings. Dudley Gallery." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1866: 71.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The Royal Academy." The Art-Journal, 1 June 1866: 165.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "Dudley Gallery. Cabinet Pictures in Oil. The First Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1867: 269.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The Fourth General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings. Dudley Gallery." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1868: 45.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "Dudley Gallery. Cabinet Pictures in Oils. The Second Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1868: 280.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "Dudley Gallery. Fifth General Exhibition of Drawings." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1869: 81.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The Royal Academy. The One Hundred and First Exhibition. Second Notice." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1869: 201.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The London Art Season." Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, August 1869: 220-239.

ANNOTATION:
Solomon's contribution to the Royal Academy in 1869 was The Toilette of a Roman Lady. The author of this review laments that Solomon's painting emulates decadence, but is grateful for the romance and Venetian coloring.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The Dudley Gallery. The Third Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1869: 369.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "Dudley Gallery. Sixth General Exhibition of Drawings." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1870: 87.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Colvin, Sidney. "English Painters of the Present Day. IV. Simeon Solomon." Portfolio, 1 (March 1870): 33-35.

ANNOTATION:
Colvin has the highest praise for the Aesthetic movement and Solomon, particularly in regard to his Biblical and Greco-Roman subjects, although he warns the artist to be wary of the effeminacy in his work. The drawing Until the Day Break and the Shadows Flee Away is illustrated.
REPRINTED:
In English Painters of the Present Day, London: Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 1871.

§ "The Royal Academy." The Art-Journal, 1 June 1870: 161-172.

ANNOTATION:
Solomon's 1870 contribution to the Royal Academy was A Youth Relating Tales to Ladies. The reviewer compares this work with Fortunes by G. D. Leslie. He sees Solomon's work as boring and expresses disappointment with the enervation not only in this work but others by him as well.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "Dudley Gallery. Fourth Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1870: 373.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Payne, John. "Sleepers and One That Watches." Intaglios, Sonnets. London: B. M. Pickering, 1871, 65-68.

ANNOTATION:
Payne wrote three poems based on Solomon's 1870 watercolour The Sleepers and the One That Watcheth.
§ UPDATED ANNOTATION:
17 Feb 2002 - According to Gayle Seymour (1986), the poem is based on Solomon's 1867 drawing "Sleepers and one that Watches" of 1867.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]
REPRINTED:
In The Vision of Simeon Solomon by Simon Reynolds, Stroud: Catalpa Press, 1984, 99-100.

§ "The Dudley Gallery. The Seventh Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1871: 85.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

[Lloyd, E. M.]. Rev. of A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep. Athenaeum, 25 March 1871: 368.

ANNOTATION:
Lloyd is unsure of Solomon's intent and thus interprets the allegory as an extension of Socrates's palinode to Eros from the Phaedrus, the evolution of love from the physical to the spiritual. Spiritual love is a victory for which Lloyd ultimately is grateful, as it shows that the narrator has been saved from the vice of physical love between men. Lloyd praises the individual illustrations, and wishes there were more, as they might work laterally to clarify both the text and Solomon's oeuvre.
§ UPDATED ANNOTATION:
1 Sep 2007 - According to Thomas J. Tobin, Pre-Raphaelitism in the Nineteenth-Century Press: A Bibliography (Victoria, BC, Canada: University of Victoria, 2002), the author of this review is Thomas Watson Jackson (cit. 1871.080, p.80).

Symonds, John Addington. Rev. of A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep. Academy, 1 April 1871: 189-190.

ANNOTATION:
Symonds wrote what is perhaps the finest review, praising Vision as a beautiful allegory which reveals the meaning behind the artist and his work. Solomon's character of Love is a combination of classical perfection, medieval mysticism, and Oriental exoticism. Together these three aspects produce an idealized figure who can only be understood by reading Solomon's allegory and by connecting Solomon's illustrations to one another.
REPRINTED:
In A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep by Simeon Solomon, Portland, ME: T. B. Mosher Press, 1909, 57-64.

§ "The Royal Academy. The One Hundred and Third Exhibition. Second Notice." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1871: 177.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. "Simeon Solomon: Notes on His ‘Vision of Love’ and Other Studies." Dark Blue, 1 (July 1871): 568-577.

ANNOTATION:
Solomon asked his friend Swinburne to write this review in the Oxford periodical to which they both contributed regularly. The essay is rich in poetic abstraction, referring to Solomon's art as "music made visible." He opens with a discussion of the prose-poem and praises its ethereal achievements, but he wishes there were more transitional passages and illustrations to help clarify the meaning. He spends more time praising Solomon's paintings for their exotic appeal. Swinburne's criticism sparked an angry reaction in Solomon, but their friendship continued at least for the next year.
REPRINTED:
In The Complete Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Eds. Edmund Gosse and Thomas James Wise, London: W. Heinemann, Ltd., 1925-1927.

Maitland, Thomas [Robert Buchanan]. "The Fleshly School of Poetry: Mr. D. G. Rossetti." Contemporary Review, 18 (October 1871): 334-350.

ANNOTATION:
Buchanan's infamous review, and the subsequently revised pamphlet in 1872, primarily attacks Rossetti's and Swinburne's poetry; Solomon's work is mentioned pejoratively in correlation to Rossetti's work. It is less helpful in elucidating Solomon's style of painting than in historically marking the first contemporary attempt to mock Solomon's work.

§ "The Dudley Gallery. Fourth Winter Exhibition." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1871: 285.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "General Exhibition of Water-colour Drawings. Dudley Gallery." The Art-Journal, 1 March 1872: 74-75.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The Royal Academy. The One Hundred and Fourth Exhibition [continued]." The Art-Journal, 1 July 1872: 184.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ "The Dudley Gallery. Egyptian Hall." The Art-Journal, 1 December 1872: 309.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Pater, Walter. "A Study of Dionysus." Fortnightly Review, 26 (December 1876): 752-772.

ANNOTATION:
Pater refers to a painting of Bacchus by a "young Hebrew," describing the 1867 Bacchus as being "subtler, melancholy," thereafter tracing the less heroic Dionysus in Greek myth. Pater was among the few who attempted to remain friends with Solomon after his 1873 arrest.
REPRINTED:
In Greek Studies, London: Macmillan & Co., 1894, 1-48.

Whiteford, Sidney Trefussis. "A Half-Forgotten Genius." The Art Amateur, 27 (December 1892): 7-9. Cont'd. in 28 (January 1893): 46-47.

ANNOTATION:
This first American article on Solomon introduces an unknown artist to an American public. Whiteford lauds Solomon and his aestheticism. His work is incomparable to Pre-Raphaelitism, although it is influenced by Rossetti and Burne-Jones. Solomon also shares the symbolism of William Blake. Focusing on the illustrations to the Song of Songs, Whiteford gives an intriguing interpretation of the sensual three figures in the illustrations as Love, Solomon himself as Supreme Wisdom, and the Bride as Humanity.

§ Temple, A. G. The Art of Painting in the Queen's Reign. London: Chapman & Hall, Ltd., 1897, 334-336.

ANNOTATION:
This work serves to demonstrate how by the late 1890s Solomon was a forgotten artist. The author largely praises Solomon's artistry, particularly of the 1860s, and notes that "it is to be regretted so few examples comparatively have come." He highlights works in the collection of William Coltart, including Love in Autumn (here called Love in Winter). There is no mention of Solomon's lifestyle or downfall, perhaps signifying the author's unfamiliarity with the artist.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version] [PDF Version]

NEW § Lenox, John Powell. "The Supreme Face of the Christian Centuries." The Biblical World 12, no.6 (December 1898): 380-399.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
My thanks to Carolyn Conroy for informing me of this source.

Bate, Percy. "The Romantic Influence: Fredrick Sandys, Simeon Solomon, and George Wilson." The English Pre-Raphaelite Painters: Their Associates and Successors. London: George Bell & Sons, 1899, 59-68.

ANNOTATION:
Aside from the American Whiteford (and now Temple to a lesser extent), Bate is the first to name Solomon and discuss his work in detail since the 1873 arrest. This early Pre-Raphaelite commentary was revised in 1901. Like Whiteford, Bate does not see Solomon as a true Pre-Raphaelite; he notes instead the Solomon's works should be seen as exotic, overly-sentimental, allegorical images. Illustrations of Dawn, Amor Sacramentum, and Love in Autumn are included.

"Inquest." The Times, 18 August 1905: 9.

ANNOTATION:
This brief news report recounts the inquest concerning Solomon's death. It sheds light on the fact that by 1905 most of Britain had forgotten him and that he was essentially a fallen victim of alcoholism. It cites information from his cousin as to the last time he had been helped by his family and also provides details about the last few months of his life as reported by people at St. Giles Workhouse. It ends with the announcement that one of his paintings (title unidentified) had recently sold at Christie's for 250 guineas.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

Ross, Robert. "A Note on Simeon Solomon." Westminster Gazette, 24 August 1905: 1-2.

ANNOTATION:
Historically, this laudatory obituary is important because it provides biographical details that had not been published before. For instance, Ross reports on the reception of Solomon's Moses by Thackeray, on Solomon's "eccentric" scandalous behaviour, and on the myth about Solomon and a second burglar bungling a robbery attempt (the home-owner supposedly identified as Burne-Jones, who let them go). Ross praises the work from Solomon's early career, but is negatively critical of his later works.

§ M., W. "Art Notes." The Illustrated London News, 26 August 1905: 312.

ANNOTATION:
This two-paragraph obituary laments Solomon's passing because it is the passing of a formerly great artist, not Solomon himself: "The tragedy is ... that one who exhibited at the Royal Academy should die in a workhouse." The obituary also includes the quote by Lady Burne-Jones on her husband's and her admiration for Solomon.
ORIGINAL SOURCE: [HTML Version]

§ Baillie, John. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by the Late Simeon Solomon, Open from December 9th, 1905, to January 13th, 1906. London: The Baillie Gallery, 1905, vii pp.

M., E. "Simeon Solomon." The Bystander, 20 December 1905: 609.

ANNOTATION:
This one-paragraph review of the posthumous 1905 exhibition at John Baille's Gallery declares Solomon's work to be disappointing because of its repetition and lack of inspiration later in life. There is a hint of Solomon's scandalous past in the author's suggestion that the exhibition "is full of interest--and warning." Two unnamed sketches are illustrated.

Ross, Robert. "Simeon Solomon." Academy, 31 December 1905: 1336-1337.

ANNOTATION:
Ross continues his appreciation of Solomon in this more positive biographical and evaluative essay, written to coincide with the two posthumous Solomon exhibitions at Baille's Gallery and the Royal Academy at Burlington House. Ross speaks here more from personal experience and reveals he knew Solomon, but had not seen him since 1893. He praises his use of oils in painting and at the end aggrandizes his work to Gustave Moreau's in its presentation of subject and form.
REPRINTED:
With editorial changes in Masques and Phases, London: Humphreys, 1909.
With editorial changes as "Two Appreciations: I. Aubrey Beardsley; II. Simeon Solomon," The Bibelot, 17 (April 1911): 139-151.

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