The Artist
Estella Solomons - Portrait of Bethel Solomons
Estella Solomons was a prominent figure in twentieth century Dublin, known for her work as a portraitist and for her evocative prints of the city’s lanes and streets.
She came from a well-to-do professional family. Her father, Maurice E. Solomons was an optician and maker of optical instruments, who, along with her mother, Rosa Jane, was an important figure in Dublin’s small Jewish community. At the age of sixteen, Solomons enrolled in classes at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, before undertaking further training at the Chelsea School of Art, London.
Like her peers Sarah Purser and Sarah Cecilia Harrison, Solomons was immersed in Dublin’s cultural and political life. Moving in revivalist circles, she was a member of the Five Provinces Branch of the Gaelic League, and frequently exhibited her work in their art exhibitions.
In 1916, she was active in the Irish National Aid and Volunteer Dependents’ Fund, helping to raise funds for their work. She later joined the Ranelagh Branch of Cumann na mBan, and sheltered members of the IRA in her Pearse Street studio during the War of Independence.
This space was an important meeting point for Solomons’ literary, artistic and political friends and the portraits that emanated from it are an important record of this period in Irish history.