Painter. Born the third of eight children, his father was Meyer Solomon, a prominent Leghorn hat manufacturer and his wife Catherine. His family had several artists including a sister Rebecca and a younger brother, Simeon Solomon. His cousins used the surname of "Salaman." At the age of thirteen, he began studies at the Sass's School of Art in Bloomsbury, and in 1838 received the Isis Silver Medal at the Society of Arts for a drawing of a statue. In 1839 he was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy, where he received in the same year a silver medal for drawing of an antique, and in 1843 another for drawing from the life. His first main exhibition was "Rabbi Expounding the Scriptures," which was shown in March of 1840 at the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street. His first venture into Royal Academy exhibitions occurred in May of 1841 with two paintings titled "My Grandmother" and a scene from Sir Walter Scott's "Fair Maid of Perth". At the age of 20, he was commissioned to paint the 1844 portrait of the Duke of Wellington from Antoine Claudet's daguerreotype. His most famous paintings were done between 1850 and 1860. Starting in 1854, he produced a series of oil-on-canvas paintings using bright primary colors of people on trains or waiting in the train depot. The 1857 painting, "Waiting for the Verdict," was part of a series of darker yet very detailed paintings, which he produced on the subject of a man's trial and the distraught family, with the last being in 1859 "Not Guilty." He married Ella Hart on May 10, 1860. The couple traveled to the mountains of Pyrenees, producing at least six pieces "painted from nature." In 1861 he joined the Artists Rifles 38th Middlesex with younger brother Simeon, but by the autumn of 1862 after suffering from ill health caused by heart problems, he journeyed to Biarritz in the south of France to paint and recuperate with his wife nursing him. His last work, "The Departure of a Diligence, Biarritz," was painted there. He died of heart disease complicated with an infection in his lungs on December 19, 1862. He had been nominated for Associate of the Royal Academy on July 30, 1861 but did not receive enough votes to be awarded the honor before his death at age 37. His obituary states that he was an honest and kindhearted man with many friends. He is not related to Solomon Joseph Solomon and his sister, Lily Delissa Joseph, both noted Jewish artist of the same era in London.