Simeon Solomon (1840-1905)

Born in Bishopsgate, London, Simeon Solomon was, like his brother Abraham and sister Rebecca, encouraged to become an artist. He trained at his brother's studio then later enrolled at Cary's Academy in Bloomsbury. In 1855 he attended the Royal Academy Schools where almost from the start his work showed Pre-Raphaelite influence and he was soon in touch with Rossetti and Burne-Jones.

His career collapsed in 1873 when he was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment for homosexual offences. He was disowned by the other Pre-Raphaelites who agreed to pretend that he had simply never existed. Although the sentence was later reduced to a police supervision order he was never to regain his position in respectable society.

For the last twenty years of his life he lived mainly at the St Cues Workhouse, sometimes working as a pavement artist or as a match and shoelace vendor. He died in August 1905 from heart failure aggravated by bronchitis and alcoholism.