Freer in his handling, and perhaps more intense in poetic feeling, but setting not so great a regard upon finish, is Simeon Solomon, from whose hand it is to be regretted so few examples comparatively have come. Between 1860 and [page 334] 1870 appears to have been the time his best work was produced. Mr. William Coltart has several, most of them of that period. "Love in Winter" (33 x 26), painted in Florence in 1866, gives the effect of the rude winds, whose chill breath scatters the dead leaves and roughly handles the crimson wings and raiment of the figure of Love as, forlorn of aspect, he passes on his way. This is in oil, but most of his work has been in water-colour. Unquestionably among the finest of these "A Greek High Priest" must be ranked (17 x 13), painted in Rome in 1867. It is a superb piece of water-colour art, strong and brilliant, the handsome bronzed face standing out from the rich vestments in its dark manly beauty, the tall candlesticks on the altar behind him serving well to relieve the shadowed background. "The Elevation of the Host," painted in 1870, shows a younger priest in white gold-embroidered robe. The painter's power of expression, weak as the drawing may sometimes be, is exceptional. In a small work entitled "He shall give His Angels charge over Thee" this power is particularly instanced. It was formerly in the collection of the late Mr. James Anderson Rose, and shows, in a room carpeted with dark green, an aureoled angel, with red wings and habited in green, receiving with infinite tenderness a frail white-robed figure that hurries in dire distress towards it. All the works that have been mentioned hitherto are in Mr. Coltart's collection. Mrs. Salaman, of Mill Hill, also has several, but none of them in very mature condition; and the late Mr. Craven, of Bakewell, had one of the best examples, "The Sleepers and the One that Waketh" (14 x 18), showing three almost [page 335] life-sized heads, but painted with much feeling, although the hands are a little wanting in their modelling. [page 336]

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