Love

Solomon was eighteen when he made this drawing, preparing to debut at the Royal Academy with "Abraham Sacrificing Isaac." While he used that painting to explore his own Jewish heritage, "Love" demonstrates a parallel fascination with poetic medieval imagery. At right, a young musician leans against a bedpost and gazes at a sleeping girl. A mirror hanging from the bedrail reflects a robed figure with a lamp and a Gothic window in the room behind. The window frames a huge moon whose light spills across the musician's back and a panel of embroidery draped over a wooden rack. The title inscribed in the upper margin ties the composition to a series of monochrome wash drawings of the Passions that Solomon made around this time. Style and imagery both demonstrate the influence of Solomon's mentor Dante Gabriel Rossetti.