Geskel Saloman

Soloman was one of the Bedřich Smetana's closest friends and painter of one of the three existing portraits of the founder of the Czech national music, then only 34 years old.

He was also a character interested in giving drawing lessons, being offered a position as teacher in 1871 at the Göteborgs Musei Rit-och Målarskola, now Konsthögskolan Valand; becoming a member of the Art Academy in Stockholm from 1874.

One of his earlier works, En Væverske med sit Barn, exhibited in Copenhagen in 1858, was given the honorable mention at the Salon de Paris, where he studied under the guidance of Thomas Couture between the years 1854-1855.

In decorative terms a very powerful image, though not weighty enough for content prize, The Home-Coming of the Victor (1881), was bestowed upon King Oscar II of Sweden for his silver wedding anniversary.

His latest work is the Gustav Vasa and Dalkarlene (1886) and Marsk Stigs Daughters (1893), which belongs to the National Museum in Stockholm, and finally Ahasuerus and the Angel of Death, exhibited 1896.

Geskel Saloman, from the Royal Library , Copenhagen
Saloman in his studio. (1901)