Within the sacramental veils

The title refers to a feature of ritualistic worship in Roman Catholicism (or Anglican Catholicism) around the sacrament of the Eucharist or Holy Communion. The Consecration of the Eucharistic Host (the communion wafer) is the centre of the Mass involving a ritual of bread and wine. Solomon’s paintings and watercolours of the 1860s and 70s demonstrated his curiosity about all kinds of religious practices and rituals, including altars, vestments and vessels – as, for example, in The Mystery of Faith (1870, Liverpool, National Museums).

Here, however, Solomon represents the ritual in an allegorical way: Holy Communion (the Eucharist) is represented literally as a coming together of a (female) communicant with Christ’s actual body – her head resting on his chest on which a stylised heart is delineated. Although it had its origins in the 17th century, the image of the Sacred Heart was popularised during the 1880s, indicating Solomon’s experiences of mixing with contemporary Roman Catholic communities, such as that of the Carmelites on Kensington Church Street, throughout the last decades of the nineteenth century. The landscape background is dominated by a depiction of Mount Calvary, a motif of three crosses also referenced in the artists Paolo e Francesca da Rimini (see lot 1).

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.