LGBT Artwork

Simeon Solomon, Sappho and Erinna in a Garden at Mytilene, 1864

Sappho, a famous Greek poet, was well known and lauded in her time as a poet, but only fragments of her work remain. Her masterful poetry deals with the love that men and women have for both sexes, but she is most famously associated with female homosexuality - to the point that her name and her birthplace (the isle of Lesbos) both became adjectives to describe it. Sapphic, lesbian love, is Sappho's legacy, seen in this painting of Sapphos and one of her lovers, Erinna. Erinna was also a poet, although not as proflic as Sappho, and very few fragments of her poetry survive. She died young, at the age of 19.

Here, Sappho and Erinna embrace tenderly. Sappho, the figure on the right, is the stronger and more androgynous of the two, while Erinna provides a more feminine foil, with her breasts exposed. On the right, a musical instrument and a scroll are visible, symbolizing Sappho's achievements as a poet. Above them are two doves mimicking their pose, symbolic of love, to further emphasize their relationship. The painting's slightly blurry lines, strict pyramidal composition, and riot of greenery are typical of the Pre-Raphaelite style.

The painter, Simeon Solomon, was a Jewish Englishman who was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, an attempt by a core group of seven painters to reform the artistic world and make painting more precise. He was one of the few British painters who depicted Sappho; he was homosexual himself, and he explored that taboo subject in his work, including nude depictions of the god Eros. After he was arrested in 1873 on a charge of attempting to commit sodomy, his artistic career was abruptly cut short. In 1905, he finally succumbed to alcoholism.