Love Revealed is the first major study devoted to the dramatic career of Simean Solomon (1840-1905), a leading painter of the Pre-Raphaelite group that formed around Dante Gabriel Rossetu in the mid-nineteenth century. Reproducing paintings and drawings rarely seen since their first showing, it explores Solomon's work in the contexts of Aestheticism, Judaism and modern-day studies of masculinity.
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About the Author
Colin Cruise, formerly a senior lecturer in art history at the University of Staffordshire, is a freelance curator and writer on art. Victoria Osborne is Curator of Prints and Drawings at Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Unique And Essential Study Of This Important Artist,
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This review is from: Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon And the Pre-raphaelites (Hardcover)
The career of Simeon Solomon was complicated by certain personal difficulties
which have inhibited the study of this artist until quite recently. In these days of Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol, a scandalous life should not exert an embargo on the serious critical study of an artist like Solomon whose style, while unique in many ways, was securely situated in the mainstream artistic currents of the Victorian era. However, it is unfortunately true that any academic person who contemplates writing a book about an artist with a tarnished reputation must consider the effect of such a book on her or his own career. To put it more plainly, a professor at a small college in the Midwest will hesitate before investing a lot of effort in publicizing an artist who was hounded out of society because of a homosexual scandal. One way around this problem is to create an important critical study of a problematic artist that is disguised as a record of a retrospective art show. This book presents itself as the record of a Simeon Solomon retrospective at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. That sounds very respectable indeed, But hidden in this innocent suit of clothes is a frank and penetrating critical assessment of a controversial artist concerning whom no other modern critical studies are available. I had never seen a photograph of Solomon before I opened this book. But on p. 179 two very remarkable photos are presented. One image, Plate 148a, shows a dapper young man about town with a gaze of incredible sympathy and intelligence. This was Solomon before the blow fell. The other image, Plate 148B, shows a shockingly changed man, prematurely aged and balding, staring defiantly into the camera while hunched over a drawing, as if to say, I am what I am and if you don't like it you can go straight to hell. Most of the paintings discussed in the book are well reproduced in full color and amply justify Solomon's contemporary reputation as an innovative colorist. Many paintings by a variety of contemporary artists are also reproduced, and show that Solomon was not so very far away from other artists of his time. I am preaching to the converted here, so I won't go into Solomon's art in any further detail. If you know about him, you know about him. This is perhaps not a book for little children, and that's as far as I'll go. If you order this book, you should tell the seller that you want to receive a complete copy with all pages present. This is the kind of book from which people will be tempted to remove pages with a razor blade, either because they like certain pictures, or because they wish to destroy them. So please be warned! Also, don't give this book to your Aunt Pittypat as a birthday present, because she might get a severe attack of the vapors. If Solomon interests you, please let me also recommend the recent book "Gustave Moreau, Between Image And Dream," by G. Lacambre. This book presents itself as the official record of a Moreau exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the main section of the book is entitled "Catalog." But there is hidden dynamite here as well. This is a grand book and you'll probably love it, but once again, don't let Aunt Pittypat into the room while you're reading it.
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