We are delighted to share details of a forthcoming online talk by CREATe’s Dr Elena Cooper, to take place on 30 September 2026 at 7.30pm, hosted by Southampton City Art Gallery and focussed on the paintings First Class (1854-5) and Second Class (1854) by Abraham Solomon (1823-1862).
Abraham Solomon’s ‘First Class’ (Southampton City Art Gallery)
Abraham Solomon’s ‘Second Class’ (Southampton City Art Gallery)
Elena will show how insights from past times – copyright debates about Second Class involving versions held by the National Gallery of Australia and the National Railway Museum, York – can change the way we encounter both these paintings, including the versions held by Southampton City Art Gallery. While from the standpoint of today, these paintings are antiquated in appearance, a legal historical perspective also sheds light on themes which can resonate with the present, including those explored by Southampton artist Emma Richardson, in her headline show which marked the reopening of Southampton City Art Gallery this Spring.
While this talk is for the general public, it will also appeal to scholars of any discipline with an interest in nineteenth century art, copyright and innovative themes given voice by the Jewish artist Abraham Solomon.
The talk is free, but there are options enabling a voluntary donation to be made to the Gallery should you wish to do so. To book a place for this free online talk, please do so here.
Below is the full abstract, as advertised by Southampton City Art Gallery.
Rediscovering First Class and Second Class by Abraham Solomon
How does a painting’s history change the way we encounter it today? In this talk, Dr Elena Cooper (CREATe, University of Glasgow) will rediscover Abraham Solomon’s First Class and Second Class for a present-day audience. Today the Victorian appearance of these paintings may distance our emotional connection. Yet, when first exhibited in 1854, the paintings broke new ground, as daring depictions of modern-life in new social spaces – railway carriages – made possible by then relatively new technological change. A new strand of the history of these paintings – a parliamentary debate about copyright in 1858 – enables us to understand both paintings, and the stories that they tell, differently. In fact, Solomon’s work resonates strongly with themes that matter to us today, explored in the exhibitions which marked this Gallery’s 2026 reopening: art, social power and who has the right to speak.
This talk comprises part of the CREATe project ‘Painting and Copyright in the Nineteenth Century’, comprising knowledge exchange and outreach from Elena’s monograph Art and Modern Copyright: The Contested Image, 2018. Other output from that project includes a free online exhibition telling the history of painting copyright through the Victorian art collection held by Royal Holloway, and a short online article about the copyright history significance of Holman Hunt’s ‘The Light of the World’ for Keble College, Oxford.
Elena will be launching the related project ‘Photography and Copyright in the Nineteenth Century’ next academic year, including an online exhibition telling the history of photographic copyright through copyright-registered photographs, to be hosted by the Royal Society of Arts through the Bloomberg Culture App.