Simeon Solomon: Queer and Jewish in Victorian London

Simeon Solomon: Queer and Jewish in Victorian London is the first major museum exhibition in the United States devoted to Simeon Solomon (1840–1905), one of the most daring and distinctive artists associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. Described by Edward Burne-Jones as “the greatest of us all,” Solomon used his artistic practice to explore his sexuality and faith. He produced art that brought biblical narrative, religious ritual, and queer sensuality into unexpected dialogue.

Assembling over 180 paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, photographs, and archival material, Simeon Solomon: Queer and Jewish in Victorian London follows Solomon’s vision across Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman subjects. These works range from Old Testament scenes to depictions of Sappho, Bacchus, and other classical figures—subjects through which Solomon gave form to beauty, longing, and same-sex passion.

Solomon’s career never recovered after his 1873 arrest for attempted sodomy. Rejected by the art establishment in which he had once thrived, he lived for decades under precarious circumstances marked by alcoholism, homelessness, and repeated stays in London workhouses. Yet Solomon did not disappear. He continued to produce an extensive body of work and garnered a new generation of followers and supporters, even as later histories of Victorian art minimized his achievements or omitted him entirely.

This exhibition positions Solomon as a major Victorian artist whose sexuality and faith were central to the power and intensity of his art. Seen anew, his work emerges as sophisticated and resilient, using the languages of Pre-Raphaelitism, Judaism, and classical antiquity to visualize desire and identity far beyond the constraints of Victorian convention.

Simeon Solomon: Queer and Jewish in Victorian London is co-curated by Sophie Lynford, Annette Woolard-Provine Curator of the Bancroft Pre-Raphaelite Collection, Delaware Art Museum, and Roberto C. Ferrari, Curator of Art Properties, Columbia University, and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated volume published by Yale University Press.

The Mother of Moses, 1860. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Oil on canvas, 24 × 19 7/8 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Bequest of Robert Louis Isaacson, 1999.

A Young Musician Employed in the Temple Service During the Feast of Tabernacles (Hosannah!), 1861. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Oil on canvas, 24 1/4 × 18 1/2 inches. Private collection.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace, 1863. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Watercolor with graphite on paper, 13 × 9 inches. Art Institute of Chicago.

Two Acolytes Censing: Pentecost, 1863. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Gouache on paper mounted on canvas, 15 7/8 × 13 11/16 inches. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, 1864. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Watercolor on paper, 13 × 15 inches. Tate.

Bacchus, 1867. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Oil on canvas, 20 × 14 3/4 inches. Birmingham Museums Trust.

Toilette of a Roman Lady, 1869. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Oil on canvas, 44 × 38 1/4 inches. Delaware Art Museum, F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1989.

Carrying the Scrolls of the Law, 1871. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Oil on canvas, 30 × 24 inches. Private collection.

The Sleepers and the One That Watcheth, 1871. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Watercolor on paper, 13 11/16 × 17 5/8 inches. Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, The Royal Pump Rooms, Warwick District Council.

The Moon and Sleep, 1894. Simeon Solomon (1840–1905). Oil on canvas, 20 1/4 x 30 inches. Tate.

Organizer & Sponsors

This exhibition is organized by the Delaware Art Museum with support from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the Amy P. Goldman Foundation, and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.