Death awakening Sleep

Percy Bysshe Shelley was Solomon’s favourite poet; his famous description in Queen Mab, 'How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother Sleep', draws on the story of the twin children born to Night. Solomon’s later drawings return frequently to the subject, playing subtle variations on the relationship between the brothers (see lot 66).

Here, Death, grim-faced and cloaked, embraces the 'winged and poppied sleep', as the artist was to describe him in another work (1888, Aberdeen Art Gallery), waking him in the process. They stare into one another’s eyes. The iconography and composition are close to another of Solomon’s mythological subjects, Night and Sleep (1888, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery).

This composition was photographed by Frederick Hollyer and sold as a commercial print.

We are grateful to Colin Cruise for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.