Title: Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene Artist: Simeon Solomon (English, 1840-1905) Date: 1864 Genre: historical painting Movement: Pre-Raphaelite Period: Victorian Medium: watercolor on paper Location: Tate Britain, London, England, UK (on loan to Palazzo Chiablese, Turin, Italy)
Simeon Solomon, a Jewish Englishman associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement, often portrayed scenes (both in art and in literature) of same-sex love. Such a one is this watercolor of the great lyric poet Sappho and Erinna, author of the long poem The Distaff, whose dates are uncertain but who was said in some ancient traditions to have been part of Sappho's circle on Lesbos. Solomon was eventually arrested for sodomy and imprisoned; he emerged a broken man whose alcoholism ultimately killed him.
