Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/365

 (never reprinted) on Solomon's 'Vision,' crediting the artist with exceptional spiritual insight. At the same time the artist was steadily adding to his fame, not only by his oil-pictures at the Academy — 'Toilet of Roman Lady' (1869), 'Youth relating Tales to Ladies' (1870), and 'Love Bound and Wounded' (1870)— but by his pencil studies and water-colours, which were shown chiefly at the Dudley Gallery. In an article in the 'Portfolio' (March 1870) (Sir) Sidney Colvin, while praising Solomon's artistic gifts, protested against signs of sentimental weakness, which excess of eulogy was tending to aggravate. The warning had a tragic sequel. After sending 'Judith and her Attendant' to the Academy in 1872 Solomon ceased exhibiting, and his career collapsed. Through alcohol and other vicious indulgence he became 'famous for his falls.' Efforts of kinsmen and friends to help him proved of no avail. A waif of the streets, he refused commissions when they were offered him, though in an occasional drawing such as 'The Mystery of Faith,' akin to an earlier 'Rosa Mystica,' he showed that he still preserved some of his skill and cherished some of his earher mystical predilections. To the 'Hobbyhorse' (1893) he contributed 'The Study of a Medusa Head stimg by its own Snakes,' a favomite theme, with the legend — apt for his own case — 'Corruptio optimi pessima.' He found some brief consolation in visits to the Carmehte chm-ch at Kensington, and painted a number of subjects connected with the Roman rite. His main source of income in the long years of his ruin were the occasional few shillings earned by hasty drawings of a futile but, in reproductions, popular sentunentality. He tried his hand without success as a pavement artist in Bayswater. At length he became an almost habitual inmate of St. Giles's workhouse. Found insensible in Great Turnstile in May 1905, he was carried to King's College Hospital and thence to the workhouse, where he died suddenly of heart failure in the dining hall on 14 Aug. following. He was buried in the Jewish cemetery at Willesden. He was unmarried.

Many of his more important paintings in oil and water-colour were exhibited at Burlington House in Jan.-Feb. 1906. The pictures included 'Love in Winter' (Florence, 1866); 'The Mother of Moses' (1860); 'Hosanna!' (1861); 'A Prelude by Bach' (1868); 'The Bride' and 'The Bridegroom' (1872). Solomon's work is chiefly in private collections, including those of Miss Colman at Norwich, Mrs. Coltart, Mr. Fairfax Murray, Lady Battersea, and Mr. W. G. Rawlinson. In public collections he is represented by 'A Greek Acolyte' (1867-8) in the Birmingham Art Gallery; by several paintings in the Dublin Gallery of Modern Art; by a water-colour drawing, 'In the Temple of Venus' (1865), at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington; by 'Love dreaming by the Sea' at Aberystwyth, and by a beautiful drawing of a girl (1868) in the British Museum.

A portrait drawing by Solomon of himself (1859) is in the More-Adey collection.

 SORBY, HENRY CLIFTON (1826–1908), geologist, was born on 10 May 1826 at Woodbourne near Sheffield. With cutlery, the staple industry of that town, his family had been connected since the sixteenth century. One ancestor, who died in 1620, was the first master cutler, and Sorby's grandfather filled the same office. His father, Henry Sorby, was a partner in the firm of John and Henry Sorby, edge-tool makers, and his mother, Amelia Lambert, a woman of much force of character, was a Londoner. Sorby received his early education at a private school in Harrogate and at the collegiate school, Sheffield. After leaving school he read mathematics at home with a tutor, who fostered his love of natural science. He also practised drawing in water-colour, of which in later life he made much use. Sorby, of independent means, determined to devote himself to a career of original investigation. Sheffield was always his home, and he lived with his widowed mother until her death in 1872. After that he purchased a small yacht, the Glimpse, on board which, for many years, he spent the summer in dredging and in making biological and physical investigations in the estuaries and inland waters of the east of England. The winter was passed in Sheffield, where he did much to stimulate the intellectual life of the place, taking an active part in its societies, helping to found Firth College, of which he was one of the vice-presidents, aiding the development of the college into a 