SIMEON SOLOMON | Head of a Youth

Christie's, London, 1 December 1989, lot 1091, where purchased by Seymour Stein

On stylistic grounds this powerful drawing can be dated to Solomon's later period. At this time his pictures were more Symbolist than Pre-Raphaelite. They demonstrate how well his work fits into a wider European movement in art in which male and female heads and figures were given allegorical or psychological meaning. This drawing of an androgynous head is given no attributes for identification and it appears to depict a state of dreamlike reverie or peace, rather than a specific literary figure. The drawing is also similar to work being produced further afield, such as the heavily-draped Symbolist figures of the American artist Elihu Vedder.