Price Realized £20,315
signed with monogram and dated '61' (lower right)
oil on canvas, painted arch
21 x 16½ in. (53.3 x 42 cm.)
A typical piece of Victorian story-telling, with the almost obligatory element of ambiguity. The young woman has received a letter from the heavily-whiskered man whose face appears in the mirror, but their relationship and her emotions remain unclear. She seems to be of a certain age, and may well be in mourning. Could the man be an adventurer, with designs on her inherited money?
The receiving and writing of letters loom large in Victorian genre painting, a reflection of the enormous improvement in the postal service following Sir Rowland Hill's invention of the penny post. Letters certainly figure prominently in this young woman's existence, witness the others in the rack on the wall and tucked into the frame of the mirror.
It has been suggested that the artist herself was the model. The figure is said to bear a certain resemblance to that of the young poacher's mother in her picture The Lion and the Mouse, which in turn has been tentatively identified as a self-portrait (see Solomon: A Family of Painters, exh. Geffrye Museum, London, 1985, cat. p. 63, no. 32, illustrated). However, as Pamela Gerrish-Nunn observed in the Geffrye Museum exhibition catalogue, 'this theory (about the self-portrait) has yet to be substantiated.' It is also disconcerting that the figure in the Forbes picture looks older than the mother in The Lion and the Mouse, yet the latter was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, four years after the Forbes picture was painted.
A million years ago, I was asked to write one chapter in a larger book, and I chose Rebecca Solomon (1832-1886).
ReplyDeleteHer female characters always look a bit sad, don't they? The distressed gentlewoman, the little appreciated governess, the woman reading a ? sad love letter.
I suppose the Solomon family had lots of ambition but did not have much money. She and her two artist brothers were always having to make do! All three of them died early or tragically.
There seems a lot of renewed interest in the Solomon's at the moment - particularly Simeon. Fascinating family.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Love-Revealed-Simeon-Solomon-Pre-raphaelites/dp/1858943116