Lot Essay
In the 1860s Solomon was at the height of his popularity, and was fascinated by depictions of the female form in classical drapery, often taking Greek and Roman gods ands and myths as his subject. This type of classical subject was popularised by contemporaries such as Sir Edward Poynter (1836-1919), and anticipates that of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912), although Solomon's work is often rather more intense and less idealised than either of these two. The priestess in the present drawing wears a diadem in the shape of a crescent moon - a clear reference to Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon, and childbirth. Her sensuous classicism is typical of this period of Solomon's work, whilst her offering of poppies, with their innate reference to laudanum, has a darker undertone given the direction his life was later to take.