‘ Jewish Women Burning Incense ’, by Simeon Solomon

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Jewish Women Burning Incense

Simeon Solomon

Wood engraving by the Dalziels [1862].

6½ x 4¾ inches

Alex Foley, Art Pictures from the Old Testament, p.167.

Jeremiah xliv: 15–30. The women are shown mixing incense with a spoon before setting fire to it as an offering to a false goddess. Solomon makes his figures into beauties in order to stress their vanity – although it is impossible to tell them apart from other figures whose beauty is a sign of purity and godliness.

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Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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Commentary by Dennis T. Lanigan

Solomon intended this illustration for the Dalziel Bible Gallery for which he prepared twenty drawings, more than any other artist involved in this project, which included artists of various schools. Those within the Pre-Raphaelite circle were William Holman Hunt, Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, and Frederick Sandys. G. F. Watts, described as “England’s Michelangelo,” was friendly with the Pre-Raphaelites but worked in a very different style. There were also those often much opposed to the Pre-Raphaelites, such as Frederick Leighton and especially Edward Poynter. When the Dalziel Bible Gallery was finally published in 1881 only six illustrations by Solomon were included, but all twenty were eventually used when Art Pictures from the Old Testament was published in 1894 by the Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge. Jewish Women Burning Incense was not the only one of Solomon's designs for the Dalziel Bible Gallery that he subsequently modified and worked up into finished watercolours or oil paintings. Some, like his well-known watercolour Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Fiery Furnace, dated 10/63, are considerably altered from the associated illustration.

In Solomon's Dalziel illustration two women, evidently from the upper class judging from their garments, can be seen mixing incense with a spoon. The subject is taken from Jeremiah 44: 15-30. The prophet had been preaching against the wickedness of the Jewish people, including Jewish women who burnt incense to a false goddess whom they called the queen of heaven.

Solomon used this drawing as the basis of a watercolor entitled In the Temple of Vesta (1862).

Bibliography

Foley, Alex. Art Pictures from the Old Testament and Our Lord’s Parables. London: Edwin Dalton [1921].

Created 4 June 2015