Simeon Solomon (1840-1905)

While the image is very characteristic of Solomon, the reference to Buddhism is unusual in English Symbolism. The closest parallels occur in France, where the influence of the German philosopher Schopenhauer, who taught that the only solution to the agonising problems of life lay in Nirvana, was widespread in Symbolist circles. Perhaps the most obvious example is a group of pictures featuring Buddha that Odilon Redon executed in the early 1900s.