In this fascinating example of Solomon's later work the artist abandons his usual symbolist style to attempt an essay in the manner of Sargent or some other fashionable portraitist of the day. One can only speculate as to how Solomon, a vagrant and alcoholic based at St Giles' Workhouse, Seven Dials, came to receive the commission. Was the sitter perhaps a parishioner of the Carmelite Church in Kensington, where he found shelter and consolation, or a member of the aesthetic circles in which his name was never entirely forgotten, even though his chosen lifestyle had long made him a social outcast?