Lily Solomon was born in London, sister of the painter Solomon J. Solomon. She trained at the Ridley School of Art and the Royal Academy, and married the architect Delissa Joseph, exhibiting her paintings alongside his drawings at the Suffolk Street Galleries in 1924 a joint exhibition of work by Joseph and her brother was held at the Ben Uri Gallery in 1946. More recently, her paintings were seen as part of the survey Jewish Artists of Great Britain 3845-1945 held at the Belgrave Gallery, London in 1978. Along with Clara Klinghoffer she was one of only five women to be included in the exhibition of forty artists.
In addition to her work as a painter of interiors, portraits and landscapes, Joseph was a political and religious activist. Her exhibition Some London and Country Interiors, held at the Baillie Gallery in 1912, was reported in the Jewish Chronicle. Next to the review appeared an announcement: 'We are requested by Mr. Delissa Joseph to state that Mrs. Joseph was unable to receive her friends at the Private View of her pictures, as she was detained at Hoiloway Gaol on a charge in connection with the Women's Suffrage Movement.' Joseph was one of the founders of the Hammersmith Synagogue and ran reading rooms in Whitechapel. Having met the impoverished young artist Isaac Rosenberg while both were copying at the National Gallery in 1911, Joseph enlisted the help of two women friends and funded his Slade training.
According to Joseph's niece, Roofs, High Hoiborn was a view from the window of her studio in Bedford Row, looking out towards the Old Bailey. She exhibited in London at the Society of Women Artists, the New English Art Club, and the Royal Academy, among other venues. In her self-portraits Delissa Joseph emphasized her modernity, vigor and beliefs. Verve (present location unknown), exhibited at the NEAC in 1889, shows her wearing a fashionable dress and an animated expression, while in Self-Portrait with Candles {Ben Uri collection) she practices Jewish ritual. |
