St. George

This watercolour is a sketch for Solomon's Diploma work, submitted on his election as an Academician, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1906, no. 295. Solomon started exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1881, and showed works so regularly thereafter that a section of the rooms became known as Solomon's corner. Although he studied at the Royal Academy Schools and at the Munich Academy, the most profound influence on his art came from his study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the nine months spent in the studio of Cabanel. Reviewing Samson, now in the Walker Art Gallery and perhaps Solomon's best known picture, the art critic on the Athenaeum, 28 May 1887, p. 708, wrote: 'Mr Solomon, ... bids boldy for a high place as a nineteenth-century Rubens by a Samson in the old fashioned magnificent style'. The artist developed a reputation for such large dramatic set pieces, but was also sought after as a society portrait painter. He was elected President of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1919.