Rebecca Solomon facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rebecca Solomon
The painting: The Wounded Dove
Born	26 September 1832 (1832-09-26) London, England
Died	20 November 1886 (1886-11-21)(age 54) London, England
Known for	Painting
Notable work	The Governess (1854) The Young Teacher (1861)
Movement	Pre-Raphaelite

Rebecca Solomon (born in London on September 26, 1832 – died in London on November 20, 1886) was an English artist from the 1800s. She was a talented painter, illustrator, and engraver. Rebecca was known for her unique ability to show social problems and unfairness in her art. She came from a well-known Jewish family, and two of her brothers also became famous artists.

About Rebecca Solomon

Rebecca Solomon was born on September 26, 1832, in Bishopsgate, east London. She was one of eight children in a family that loved art. Her father, Michael (Meyer) Solomon, was the first Jewish person to receive the "Freedom of the City of London," a special honor. Her mother was Catherine Levy. Rebecca had two older brothers, Abraham Solomon and Simeon Solomon, who were also painters.

Rebecca learned to paint from her older brother Abraham. She worked in his art studio, helping him and copying his works. She also took classes at the Spitalfields School of Design. Rebecca showed her paintings at important places like the Royal Academy of Arts and the Dudley Gallery.

She also worked with John Everett Millais, who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This was a group of artists who wanted to paint in a new, detailed way. Rebecca also worked with Edward Burne-Jones, another artist from this group. She even taught her younger brother, Simeon, many things she learned from Millais.

Rebecca cared a lot about making society better. In 1859, she joined 38 other women artists. They asked the Royal Academy of Arts to let women study there. Because of their efforts, the Academy finally allowed its first woman student, Laura Herford, in 1860.

After her brother Abraham passed away in 1862, Rebecca started working on her own. She began to use new materials like watercolors and focused more on illustrations. Her last known art show was in 1874. Rebecca died in 1886 at the age of 54. She was in an accident on Euston Road in central London.

What Her Art Was About

Rebecca Solomon's art style was typical of paintings from the 1800s. It is called genre painting, which means it showed scenes from everyday life. But Rebecca used her paintings to point out unfairness in Victorian England. She showed problems related to different ethnic groups, genders, and social classes.

Her paintings often combined her interest in theater with her strong feelings about social issues. One art critic said her work had a good, moral, and sometimes caring feeling. This was common in Victorian art. However, Rebecca's Jewish background likely helped her see and understand differences and prejudice more clearly.

For about 10 to 15 years, her art explored the difficulties faced by women and minority groups. She also showed how class differences affected English society. Rebecca is considered one of the first Jewish women to have a successful career as a painter in Britain.

In the late 1850s, Rebecca also started painting historical and classical scenes. These types of paintings were highly valued by art academies back then. Even in these works, she still included ideas that showed the roots of social unfairness in the 1800s.

One of her famous paintings, The Governess (1854), compares two women in a Victorian home. One is a lonely working-class woman, and the other is married and from a higher social class. This painting highlights how isolated a governess often felt.

Gallery

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  The Governess

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  A Fashionable Couple

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  The Friend in Need

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  The Claim for Shelter

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  Primavera

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  Peg Woffington's Visit to Triplet

Rebecca Solomon's artworks were shown in many places across England from 1850 to 1885. Some of these places included the Royal Academy of Arts, the British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists. Her painting Peg Woffington's Visit to Triplet was also shown at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris.

She exhibited almost every year at the Royal Academy's annual Summer Exhibition between 1852 and 1869. Some of her paintings shown there included:

• A. Solomon, Esq. (1852)
• The Governess (1854)
• The Story of Balaclava (1855)
• A Friend in Need (1856)
• Tis better to be lowly born, etc. (1857)
• Behind the Curtain (1858)
• Love's Labour Lost (1859)
• Peg Woffington's Visit to Triplet (1860)
• The Arrest of a Deserter (1861, now at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem)
• Fugitive Royalists (1862)
• Good Night (1863)
• Henry Esmond's Welcome at Walcote (1864)
• The Lion and the Mouse (1865)
• Heloise (1867)
• Giovannina--Roma (1867)
• Helena and Hermia (1869)
• A Bit of Old London was shown after she died, in 1903.

See also

In Spanish: Rebecca Solomon para niños English women painters from the 19th century who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts