Leonora d'Este
Date1894
Artist
Simeon Solomon
(British painter, 1840–1905)
MediumColored chalks on paper
Dimensions20 1/4 × 14 1/4 in. (51.4 × 36.2 cm)
frame: 29 1/2 x 26 in. (74.9 x 66 cm)
frame: 29 1/2 x 26 in. (74.9 x 66 cm)
Credit LineGift of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Sataloff, 1977
Object number1977-336
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextDue to his involvement in a sexual scandal in 1873, Solomon spent the last 25 years of his life in relative obscurity. He worked mostly in chalk or pencil creating single figure images such as this one. The woman in this drawing is idealized in a dreamy, soft focus style that gives little notion of an actual person. She is instead an encapsulation of the ideal. Leonora d’Este was a Florentine woman of high virtue and faithfulness who appeared in Goethe’s play Torquato Tasso (1790).
