Dangerous Liaisons: What Happened to the First Queer Art Star?

Simeon Solomon—bold, dashing, and openly queer—is a rising star in the Victorian art world when a scandal in 1873 supposedly forces him into obscurity, a cautionary tale for fans like Oscar Wilde. But the truth is more complicated and only now coming to light, revealing the fate of this forgotten figure as both more tragic and more inspiring. You can see an “allegorical self-portrait” here, from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1686/allegorical-self-portrait-simeon-solomon You can see his haunting masterwork “Love in Autumn” here: https://arthive.com/artists/1557~Simeon_Solomon/works/9454~Love_in_autumn