Property of a Gentleman

SIMEON SOLOMON (BRITISH 1840-1905)
Erinna of Lesbos
signed with initials and dated 1886 (lower right); inscribed ERINNA OF LESBOS (lower centre, in a cartouche)
sanguine chalk
16.6 x 13 cm (6 1/2 x 5 1/8 in)

PROVENANCE:
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 21 September 1988, lot 411
Peter Nahum, London
Private collection
Sale, Christie's, London, 16 June 2015, lot 30
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Executed in 1886, Erinna of Lesbos closely relates to a pencil drawing executed by Solomon in 1862 of the profile of Sappho, in the collection of Tate Britain. Erinna is the subject of the drawing which demonstrates the importance she held for Solomon. She is crowned with laurel and is drawn with soft shading, emphasising her seductive femininity.

Solomon shared a Pre-Raphaelite interest in Greek and Roman mythology and the present lot relates to a series made by the artist in the 1860s of depictions of the classical poet Sappho and her lover Erinna. Included in this series is Solomon's celebrated Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, 1864, Tate Britain, regarded as one of the most significant Victorian pictures of same-sex desire.

Solomon was greatly influenced by the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, who was influenced by Sappho's poetry. This led Solomon to explore subjects that were forbidden at the time such as homosexuality and lesbianism. However, in 1873 when Solomon was in his mid-thirties and at the peak of his career he was arrested for homosexual conduct which was illegal at the time. Solomon was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and sadly his career never recovered. Interestingly, Solomon never stopped working and continued to work on paper, his works often becoming suffused with melancholia, as in the present lot.