A Waker, a Nocturne, a Sleeper

The present sketch is a study for a watercolour of the same title in the Leamington Spa Art Gallery (see S. Reynolds, The Vision of Simeon Solomon, New York, 1985, pl. 6). This picture is an early example of a type of composition that Solomon repeated, in which androgynous bust-length figures representing vague mystical or symbolist concepts are seen against a night scattered with stars. Often they relate to his prose poem A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep (1871) where he describes a series of visions unified by a figure of Love - personified as a beautiful suffering youth.

Solomon worked with Rossetti and Burne-Jones who reportedly praised him as 'The greatest of us all'. In 1873 he was charged with gross indecency, from then his career fell into decline and he died penniless in 1905. Birmingham Museum is currently holding the first major exhibition of Solomon's work, since his death 100 years ago. His 1870 watercolour The Sleepers and the One who Watcheth, which relates to the present work, is the front cover for the exhibition catalogue, C. Cruise, Love Revealed, London, 2005.