HART, SOLOMON ALEXANDER:

By: Joseph Jacobs, Goodman Lipkind

Artist, and librarian at the Royal Academy, London; born at Plymouth April, 1806; died in London June 11, 1881. In 1823 he was entered at the Royal Academy as a student of painting. His earliest work was a portrait miniature of his father, which was exhibited in 1826. He continued for a time to paint miniatures, and exhibited his first oil-painting, entitled "Instruction," at the British Institution in 1828. In 1830 he exhibited "The Elevation of the Law" at the Suffolk Street Gallery. He was elected an A.R.A. in 1835 and a R.A. in 1840, and from 1854 to 1863 acted as professor of painting at the Royal Academy, in 1864 becoming librarian to that institution. During 1841-42 Hart visited Italy, and made an elaborate series of drawings of architectural interiors and of sites famous in history, which he intended for publication. He subsequently abandoned this intention, and made use of these drawings in several scenic and historical Italian pictures. Hart was curator of the Painted Hall at Greenwich, and frequently gave his services to the British and South Kensington museums.

Among Hart's Jewish works are: "Hannah, the Mother of Samuel"; and "The Conference Between Manasseh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell," which was bought by F. D. Mocatta, who subsequently presented it to Jews' College.

J. G. L.