First Class: The Meeting ... and at First Meeting Loved

Solomon began his career with historical and literary subjects. This canvas brought the artist his first critical success when exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1854, marking a shift in his work to contemporary subject matter. The flirtatious nature of the encounter was deemed scandalous by Solomon’s audience, and he felt obliged to paint a second version in which the older man is awake and sits between the couple, talking to the younger man. Frame: running moulding with moulded ornament, gilded. Britain, mid 19th century