Though a very delightful book might be made of his life by some one who would not shirk the difficulties of the subject, it is unnecessary here to dwell further on a career which belongs to the history of morbid psychology rather than of painting.  After drifting from the stream of social existence into a Bohemian backwater, he found himself in the main sewer.  This he thoroughly enjoyed in his own particular way, and rejected fiercely all attempts at rescue or reform.  To his other old friends, such as Burne-Jones and Sir Edward Poynter, there must have been something very tragic in the contemplation of his wasted talents, for few young painters were more successful.  Any one curious enough to study his pictures will regret that he was lost to art by allowing an ill-regulated life to prey upon his genius.  He had not sufficient strength to keep the two things separate, as Shakespeare, Verlaine, and Leonardo succeeded in doing.  At the same time, it is a consolation to think that he enjoyed himself in his own sordid way.  When I had the pleasure of seeing him last, so lately as 1893, he was extremely cheerful and not aggressively alcoholic.  Unlike most spoilt wastrels with the artistic temperament, he seemed to have no grievances, and had no bitter stories or complaints about former friends, no scandalous tales about contemporaries who had remained reputable; no indignant feeling towards those who assisted him.  This was an amiable, inartistic trait in his character, though it may be a trifle negative; and for a positive virtue, as I say, he enjoyed his drink, his overpowering dirt, and his vicious life.  He was full of delightful and racy stories about poets and painters, policemen and prisons, of which he had wide experience.  He might have written a far more diverting book of memoirs than the average Pre-Raphaelite volume to which we look forward every year, though it is usually silent about poor Simeon Solomon.  Physically he was a small, red man, with keen, laughing eyes.

By 1887 he entirely ceased to produce work of any value.  He poured out a quantity of pastels at a guinea apiece.  They are repulsive and ill-drawn, with the added horror of being the shadows of once splendid achievements.  Long after his name could be ever mentioned except in whispers, Mr. Hollyer issued a series of photographs of some of the fine early sanguine, Indian ink, and pencil drawings.  The originals are unique of their kind.  It is very easy to detect the unwholesome element which has inspired many of them, even the titles being indicative:  ‘Sappho,’ ‘Antinous,’ ‘Amor Sacramentum.’  One of the finest, ’Love dying from the breath of Lust,’ of which also he painted a picture, became quite popular in reproduction owing to the moral which was screwed out of it.  Another, of ‘Dante meeting Beatrice at a Child’s Party,’ is particularly fascinating.  To the present generation his work is perhaps too ‘literary,’ and his technique is by no means faultless; but the