AFTER SIMEON SOLOMON (BRITISH 1840-1905) Hero at Abydos awaiting Leander signed and dated 1892 (lower right) and titled (within the plate) photogravure 10 x 14 cm In 1873 when Solomon was in his mid-thirties and at the peak of his career he was arrested for homosexual conduct which was illegal at the time. Solomon was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment and sadly his career never recovered. Interestingly, Solomon never stopped working and by the 1890s his works mainly comprised of works on paper, his works often becoming suffused with melancholia, as in the present lot. NOTES: Solomon was obsessed with depicting the emotions of betrayal, love and abandonement and often he portrayed these themes in single-figure subjects, such as in the present drawing. Solomon shared a Pre-Raphaelite interest in Greek and Roman mythology and in the present drawing Solomon explores the classical myth of the two lovers Hero and Leander. Solomon makes Hero the subject of the drawing, and he skillfully draws her in red chalk with dramatic shading, emphasising her earnst as she waits for her forbidden lover Leander. In classical mythology the two lovers Hero and Leander lived in different cities, separated by the Hellespont gulf. Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite, and therefore forbidden to marry. Each night Leander swam the gulf to see Hero, who lit a lamp to guide him across the water. However, one night the lamp blew out and he was drowned. The next day, Hero discovered the drowned body of Leander and threw herself into the sea in despair. In the present lot, Solomon shows Hero desperately searching the gulf for her lover whilst her draperies whirl around her.