Artist

26 September 1832 – 20 November 1886

A tribute by Alex Round.

Rebecca Solomon, born on the 26th September 1832, was an acclaimed artist, philanthropist and social activist. She was the seventh of eight children from the middle-class Solomon family. Solomon’s family played no small part in her success: her mother, Kate Levy Solomon, was an artist and her father, Michael Meyer Solomon, was a merchant and the first Jewish man to receive the Freedom of the City of London.[i] Her father’s prosperity, her mother’s artistic encouragement and her artist brothers’ successful careers pushed Solomon to pursue her own dreams of becoming an artist. She therefore sought to establish herself among the first female Jewish artists of the time, if not, the first. [ii] But over time, Rebecca’s name has been wiped without trace and her name and career has been (until recently) left completely forgotten.

Aside from Rebecca, Abraham and Simeon were the only established artists in the family; Abraham, an associate of the Royal Academy (RA), became famous for the social commentary in his genre work and Simeon was a Pre-Raphaelite artist whose work was inspired by his Jewish heritage. Solomon’s relationship with her older brother was strong. Abraham was admitted to the RA in 1841, whilst Solomon studied under him and attended the less prestigious Spitalfield’s School of Design as women were not allowed to study at the Royal Academy’s School before the 1860s. Abraham and Rebecca shared studios at 50 Upper Charlotte Street as well as 18 Gower Street in Bloomsbury from 1851 until Abraham’s death in 1862. Although Solomon was limited in what and where she could paint, it is clear that Abraham was supportive of his sister’s career—he often escorted her to social events and introduced her to his artist friends to promote herself and her work.

However, it was her younger brother Simeon with whom Solomon enjoyed a closer personal relationship, especially after Abraham’s death. Solomon taught her brother everything she knew in terms of their religious heritage and this teaching is reflected in his art.[iii] Two siblings also had a close working partnership, having shared a studio at Fitzroy Street in Bloomsbury from 1868 up until Simeon’s arrest in 1873, frequently travelling to Italy to market their work. It is clear that Solomon’s teachings were a great inspiration to Simeon, as the Jewish subjects in his art are clear affirmations of his cultural heritage and respect for his sister. It has been widely speculated that Solomon modelled for quite a few of his initial works, as they were painted during the time the siblings shared their studio. However, because there are no known photographs of Solomon, there is no way to confirm that it is her. However, Simon Reynolds and the Geffrye Museum [Museum of the Home] both claim that she modelled for his earlier paintings, two of those being The Painter’s Pleasurance (1861) and Lady in a Chinese Dress (1865), because of the striking similarities between both female subjects.[iv]

In her own day, Solomon herself was incredibly successful, having exhibited her art work in Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester, as well as at the RA and the Dudley Gallery for over 17 years. Her illustrations were featured in London Society and The Churchman’s Family Magazine and her paintings were reproduced in the Royal Art Academy’s journals, as well as in the Illustrated London News. She even marketed her work abroad whilst accompanying her brother Simeon, having produced work on commission when in Rome.

Solomon also affected reforms for women in the art community, joining a group of thirty-eight women petitioning for the RA to accept female students in 1859. Solomon and her peers sent letters calling for the Academy’s inclusion of women, stating, ‘By this post arrives a letter from a female artist, introducing herself in a business-like-way, in order to get something done about the exclusion of female artists from the Royal Academy Instruction’.[v] Thanks to their efforts, they eventually achieved what they had set out to do, when Laura Herford was the first female student admitted by the Royal Academy schools in 1860. Solomon also gave her support towards other campaigns for women’s rights, including the 1866 women’s suffrage petition, which was the first mass petition for votes for women presented to parliament by John Stuart Mill. The petition campaigners collected nearly 1500 signatures, including Solomon’s. Although the campaign was initially unsuccessful, Solomon’s contributions to suffrage petitions only affirms her status as not only a professional artist but a progressive feminist and social activist. She was also a keen philanthropist and was concerned with the welfare of impoverished Jewish children. The Jewish Chronicle documented Solomon’s involvement with charity events organised by Jewish societies. In 1861, the newspaper listed Solomon’s donation of 10 guineas to a soup kitchen for the Jewish poor at the Black Horse Yard in Aldgate. In 1862, Solomon also contributed to the Junior Philanthropic Society for apprenticing young Jewish boys and girls.[vi] At the time, it was considered rare for middle-class women to earn their own incomes and be able to make donations of that size.

Above all, Solomon was incredibly proud of her Jewish heritage. Despite her success, Solomon likely suffered prejudice due to her Jewish heritage, as ‘English people generally… were unacquainted with [Jewish] history, religion and customs’.[vii] Moreover, she undoubtedly suffered than her artist brothers due to being a Jewish woman. Regardless, Solomon remained proud of and loyal to her Jewish heritage. Solomon’s friend, Agnes ‘Aggie’ MacDonald, stated in one of her letters that Solomon kept a Jewish calendar in her studio to ‘help substantiate hers and Simeon’s own religious piety’,[viii] meaning that she wanted to keep up with Jewish customs as a Jewish woman. Her artwork also reflects this, with her paintings commenting on gender and social class differences and exploring the plight of women from ethnic minorities. Anita Kirchen stated that there is a ‘wholesome, moral and sometimes humanizing sentiment in her art, an uncommon element in Victorian painting’ and that her Jewish heritage was ‘instrumental in developing her critical consciousness of difference’.[ix] Clearly, Solomon entwined her identity as a Jewish Victorian woman with her art and used her paintings to engage with social and political discourse.

Although her art was featured regularly in public exhibition until the 1870s, Solomon’s profile gradually diminished following Simeon’s arrest for attempted sodomy in a public urinal in 1873, her profile gradually diminished. According to the 1881 census, Solomon was still listed as an “artist painter” with a studio at 182 Great Titchfield Street, which suggests that she was still producing and marketing work.[x] Nevertheless, it is clear that from 1879, Solomon’s activity gradually began to decrease. It has been widely speculated that, during this period, Solomon turned to alcoholism and developed an ‘errant nature and came to disaster’, rendering her completely incapable of work.[xi] Despite this, there is no real evidence to suggest that Solomon had ever turned to alcoholism. In 1886, she tragically died after being hit by a hansom cab in 1886. Solomon’s death was not reported in any periodical and there are currently no existing records of where she may be buried.

It appears that Solomon has been wiped from history, despite her shining career. From her youth to her tragic death, Solomon was an active painter and campaigner and has had no recognition for it. There is a desperate need to investigate why women like Solomon have been wiped from history. Hopefully someday, Solomon’s status as a significant figure in art and feminist history will be restored.

Alex Round is currently an AHRC funded PhD student at Birmingham City University (in partnership with Midlands4Cities. She is also a Visiting Lecturer in English at Birmingham City University and an elected trustee of the Birmingham and Midland Institute. Her research concerns Pre-Raphaelite women, art and literature, as well as Gothic literature and prose and poetry of the nineteenth century. She is also a co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Podcast and Society’s Graduate Network. 

Bibliography

1881 England Census – Rebecca Solomon, RG 11/136, 181

Anon. “Donation to the Jewish Philanthropic Society”, The Jewish Chronicle, 13 Jun. 1862, p. 1.

Anon. “Donation to the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor”, The Jewish Chronicle, 20 Dec. 1861, p. 1.

Cherry, Deborah, Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850-1900, Routledge, 2012

Geffrye Museum, Solomon: A Family of Painters, Geffrye Museum, 1985

Gerrish Nunn, Pamela, ‘Rebecca Solomon. ‘Solomon, a Family of Painters: Abraham Solomon (1823-1862), Rebecca Solomon (1832-1886), Simeon Solomon (1840-1905), Inner London Education Authority, 1985

Kirchen, Anita, “Rebecca Solomon”, Jewish Women’s Archive, 2009, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/solomon-rebecca

Reynolds, Simon, The Vision of Simeon Solomon, Catalpa Press, 2010

Valman, Nadia, the Jewess in Nineteenth Century British Literary Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2007

Welby, Thomas Earle, The Victorian Romantics 1850-70: The Early Work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Burne-Jones, Swinburne, Simeon Solomon and their Associates, G.Howe, 1929

Wood, Christopher, The Blessed Damozel: Women and Children in Victorian Art, Christopher Wood Gallery, 1980

[i] The Freedom of the City of London is a status acquired by citizens of the city who have the freedom to live, trade and work within the city of London. The freedom that citizens enjoy has long associations with privileges in the governance of the city. The status is also recognised as an honorary title that awarded to those who significantly contribute to the city.

[ii] Anita Kirchen, “Rebecca Solomon”, Jewish Women’s Archive, 2009, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/solomon-rebecca

[iii] Thomas Earle Welby, The Victorian Romantics 1850-70: The Early Work of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Burne-Jones, Swinburne, Simeon Solomon and their Associates, (London: G.Howe, 1929, 58.

[iv] See Simon Reynolds, The Vision of Simeon Solomon. (London: Catalpa Press, 2010) 127 and Geffrye, Solomon: A Family of Painters. (London: Geffrye Museum, 1985) 69.

[v]Deborah Cherry, Beyond the Frame: Feminism and Visual Culture, Britain 1850-1900, (London: Routledge, 2012), 16.

[vi] Anon, The Jewish Chronicle, December 20, 1861: 1 and June 13, 1862:1. The Jewish Chronicle was an incredibly popular Jewish magazine within the Jewish community. It is still printing in the present day.

[vii] Nadia Valman, the Jewess in Nineteenth Century British Literary Culture, Cambridge University Press, 2007, 91.

[viii] Pamela Gerrish Nunn, ‘Rebecca Solomon’, Solomon, a Family of Painters: Abraham Solomon (1823-1862), Rebecca Solomon (1832-1886), Simeon Solomon (1840-1905), (London: London Education Authority, 1985) 19.

[ix] Anita Kirchen, “Rebecca Solomon”

[x] 1881 England Census- Rebecca Solomon, National Archives, RG 11/136. The occupations of the people living at this address were master builder, teacher of music, tailor and plasterer. Solomon was not living with any family members at the time.

[xi] Christopher Wood, The Blessed Damozel: Women and Children in Victorian Art, Christopher Wood Gallery, 1980