| AdminHistory | Born London, fourth son of Joseph Solomon, leather merchant, and his wife Helena Lichtenstadt, 1860; educated at Thomas Whitford's South London School; taught Hebrew and German by Rabbi Simeon Singer of the Borough synagogue; as a boy he sang in the synagogue choir and showed an early interest in both music and art; studied at Heatherley's Art School, the Royal Academy Schools, the cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Munich; returned to London, 1880; exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1881,and began to make a name for himself as a portraitist and as a painter of biblical, mythological, and genre subjects; founder member of the Society of Portrait Painters, 1891, and began to specialize in portraiture; elected ARA, 1896; married Ella, daughter of Hyman Montagu, solicitor and numismatist, 1897; one son, two daughters; elected RA, 1906; during World War I, he developed an interest in camouflage and as a result was made Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Engineers, 1916, and sent to help the French with their work on camouflage and to set up a British camouflage section in Flanders; he set up a camouflage school in London, 1918; President, Royal Society of British Artists, 1918; active supporter of the Ben Uri Art Society; a prominent figure in Anglo-Jewish society, with a keen interest in Jewish affairs; founder and first President, Maccabean Society, 1891; died Birchington, Kent, 1927. Publications include: 'The Practice of Oil Painting and Drawing' (1910); 'Strategic Camouflage' (1920). Paintings include: 'Cassandra' (1886); 'Samson' (1887); 'Niobe' (1888); 'The Judgment of Paris' (1891); 'Echo and Narcissus' (1895); 'The Birth of Love' (1896); portraits of Mrs Patrick Campbell (1894), Israel Zangwill (1894), Herbert Asquith (1909), and Ramsay McDonald (1910); public commissions included a panel for the Royal Exchange (1897), a panel for the Houses of Parliament (1911) and a picture for the Guildhall (1911). |
| CustodialHistory | Presented by the artist's daughter, J S B Montagu, to the Jewish Historical Society of England, and deposited in the Mocatta Library of University College London. |