Lot 266: Rebecca Solomon (1832-1886)

A Fashionable Couple signed and indistinctly dated 'R Solomon/185..' (lower right) oil on canvas 19 x 21 in. (48.3 x 53.3 cm.) PROVENANCE with Gavin Graham Gallery, London, 1985. Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 December 1987, lot 119, when acquired by the present owner. LITERATURE Rosemary Trebble, review of the Solomon Exhibition, Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXVIII, no. 994, January 1986, p. 54. C. Wood, Dictionary of Victorian Painters, Woodbridge, 1995 ed., vol. II, illus. p. 405. EXHIBITION London, British Institution, 1854, no. 205, as 'A Curious Page on St Valentine's Day'. Birmingham, 1854. London, Geffrye Museum, and Birmingham, Museum and Art Gallery, Solomon: A Family of Painters, 1985-6, no. 24. A Struggle for Fame, 1994, cat. p. 67. Ladies of the Brush, 1994-5, no. 28. The Defining Moment, 2000-1, no. 44. NOTES The picture has come to be known as A Fashionable Couple, but it clearly has some more specific narrative and its identification with a picture that the artist exhibited twice in 1854. A Curious Page on St Valentine's Day, is now generally accepted. Even so, the precise meaning remains elusive. The Victorians were undoubtedly devotees of St Valentine's Day rituals, but light still needs to be shed on why this young woman sees such significance in a particular book illustration, and draws it to the attention of her rather smug and self-satisfied companion. For a further comment on the picture, see Charlotte Gere's article above.