Museum Villa Stuck

Love Revealed
Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites
9 March - 18 June 2006

An exhibition of the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Curators: Colin Cruise and Victoria Osborne

Love Revealed. Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites is the first major international exhibition dedicated to the British artist Simeon Solomon in a hundred years. Solomon, born in 1840, was a member of the Pre-Raphaelites, a circle of artists that formed around Dante Gabriel Rossetti in London in the 1860s and 70s. Friend and fellow artist, Edward Burne-Jones, likewise a member of the circle, called Solomon "the greatest artist of us all . "

This full-scale survey of Solomon's career - with loans from private and public collections around the world - charts the period of his rapid rise to fame and recognition in the 1870s through to his equally dramatic fall from grace when his homosexuality became public knowledge and his career was effectively destroyed. Solomon spent the last years of his life in an East End, London, workhouse, destitute and half forgotten.

The exhibition documents Solomon's relationship with the Pre-Raphaelites and his influence on the art of the late 19th century through spectacular paintings such as Habet! (1865), numerous works on paper as well as illustrations - including some that have not shown since his death in 1905 - which have been brought together with works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Edward Poynter and other Pre-Raphaelite artists.

Love Revealed. Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites focuses primarily on two aspects of Simeon Solomon's work which, next to his influence within the Pre-Raphaelite movement, are representative of his work. Solomon is one of the most important figures in the emergence of an art shaped by Jewish heritage beginning in the mid-19th century, and in the tentative development of an openly "gay" imagery.

The exhibition, organised by the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, is divided into six sections, which examine Simeon Solomon's work both chronologically and thematically. It takes the visitor on a journey through his varied and dramatic career, from early drawings inspired by his Jewish heritage to the late, mystical works which brought a unique vision to Victorian art and influenced the development of Symbolism in Great Britain. Through the paintings and drawings of his contemporaries, Solomon's work is revealed in its wider context.

Exhibition Tour
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery: 1 October 2005 - 15 January 2006
Museum Villa Stuck, Munich: 9 March - 18 June 2006
Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art: 11 September - 26 November 2006

Catalogue
LOVE REVEALED. Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites . The exhibition catalogue, edited by Colin Cruise, with contributions by Roberto C. Ferrari, Debra N. Mancoff, Victoria Osborne, Elizabeth Prettejohn, Gayle M. Seymour and Frank C. Sharp is available in English. 192 pages , ca.135 colour and ca. 80 b /w illustrations, ISBN 1 85894 311 6. Available at the Museum Villa Stuck for the price of €29.00.

Exhibition Guide
An exhibition guide in German is available at the Museum Villa Stuck for the price of €3.00. The guide is published by the Museum Villa Stuck and contains a contribution by Victoria Osborne.

An exhibition of the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery.
Curators: Colin Cruise and Victoria Osborne

The exhibition in Munich, a project of the Jugendstil Museum in the Villa Stuck, is financed by the City of Munich and supported by the Friends of the Foundation Villa Stuck.