DOI issue:
No. 39 (June, 1896)
DOI article:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of Solomon J. Solomon
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17297#0022
The Work of Solomon J. Solomon, A.R.A.
of a story. The grouping ot the
two figures and their placing on the
canvas, the distribution of the leafy
masses of the background and of
the flowers which gave a sparkle of
colour in the foreground, the lines
of the nymph's drapery and of the
limbs of Narcissus, were really the
things of chief importance in the
scheme. That the emotional acci-
dent should have been more obvious
than usual was, we may fairly
believe, less an outcome of any
access of desire on the part of the
artist to pose as a tragedian in
paint than the result of his having
chanced upon a particular passion
which more plainly than any other
is intelligible to the majority of
mankind.
It is, of course, not a little futile
to attempt, in any discussion about
the art of a young living painter,
to finally assign to him an exact
place in the ranks of the workers
at his profession; and therefore to
presume to say definitely at this
early stage of Mr. Solomon's career
what is the only part he is to play
for the rest of his life would be
eminently foolish. All we can
reasonably do is to express the hope
that as he possesses certain ten-
dencies as a thinker and evident
capacities as a manipulator, the
development of both tendencies and
capacities will be along the lines
which lead to a place among the
" niobe " from a paintixg by s. j. solomon, a.r.a. chief exponents of art of the best
type. We are certainly justified in
neglected nymph, was very far from being only an arguing by the analogy of his past work that in
illustration of a sentimental story. It was drama- coming years he will raise rather than lower the level
tic, certainly, for it presented a certain effective of his production and simplify his art by the elimi-
combination of different shades of feeling and nation of incongruities rather than debase it by the
realised a situation which was not without a touch addition of inappropriate sentimentalities. Even
of tragedy ; but even then the pathos and personal as it is, his concessions to the subject lovers have
interest of the incident depicted, strongly as they been by no means exaggerated. He has given
were made to appeal to the student of emotions, way rather to the traditions of academic art than
were not the motives which seemed to an artist to to the demands of the public, and has produced
have had the chief influence upon the shaping of pictures which reflect much more his observations
the picture. There was perceptible in it much of his professional predecessors than his attention
more intention to arrange in pleasant relation one to popular taste. His subject painting, in a word,
to another the various parts of a design than to has come about less because he feels that in such
think out and set down in due order the sequence a use of his technical knowledge lies his most
8
of a story. The grouping ot the
two figures and their placing on the
canvas, the distribution of the leafy
masses of the background and of
the flowers which gave a sparkle of
colour in the foreground, the lines
of the nymph's drapery and of the
limbs of Narcissus, were really the
things of chief importance in the
scheme. That the emotional acci-
dent should have been more obvious
than usual was, we may fairly
believe, less an outcome of any
access of desire on the part of the
artist to pose as a tragedian in
paint than the result of his having
chanced upon a particular passion
which more plainly than any other
is intelligible to the majority of
mankind.
It is, of course, not a little futile
to attempt, in any discussion about
the art of a young living painter,
to finally assign to him an exact
place in the ranks of the workers
at his profession; and therefore to
presume to say definitely at this
early stage of Mr. Solomon's career
what is the only part he is to play
for the rest of his life would be
eminently foolish. All we can
reasonably do is to express the hope
that as he possesses certain ten-
dencies as a thinker and evident
capacities as a manipulator, the
development of both tendencies and
capacities will be along the lines
which lead to a place among the
" niobe " from a paintixg by s. j. solomon, a.r.a. chief exponents of art of the best
type. We are certainly justified in
neglected nymph, was very far from being only an arguing by the analogy of his past work that in
illustration of a sentimental story. It was drama- coming years he will raise rather than lower the level
tic, certainly, for it presented a certain effective of his production and simplify his art by the elimi-
combination of different shades of feeling and nation of incongruities rather than debase it by the
realised a situation which was not without a touch addition of inappropriate sentimentalities. Even
of tragedy ; but even then the pathos and personal as it is, his concessions to the subject lovers have
interest of the incident depicted, strongly as they been by no means exaggerated. He has given
were made to appeal to the student of emotions, way rather to the traditions of academic art than
were not the motives which seemed to an artist to to the demands of the public, and has produced
have had the chief influence upon the shaping of pictures which reflect much more his observations
the picture. There was perceptible in it much of his professional predecessors than his attention
more intention to arrange in pleasant relation one to popular taste. His subject painting, in a word,
to another the various parts of a design than to has come about less because he feels that in such
think out and set down in due order the sequence a use of his technical knowledge lies his most
8