Simeon was innate into the large Jewish family. He was a eighth & survive tike born to large merchandiser Meyer Solomon & creative person Kathe Levey. Simeon was the immature brother to fellow painters Abraham Solomon (1824–1862) and Rebecca Solomon (1832–1886).

Innate & enlightened inside London, Solomon started getting lessons around painting by his older brother around 1850. He began attending Carey's Art Academy inside 1852. His older sister foremost exhibited her works at a Royal Academy during the equivalent season.

As a student at a Royal Academy Schools, Simeon was introduced across Dante Gabriel Rossetti to other members of a Pre-Raphaelite circle, including the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne and the painter Edward Burne-Jones in 1857. His foremost exhibition was at a Royal Academy within 1858. He continued to hang on to exhibitions of his work on a Royal Academy between 1858 and 1872. Additionally to the literary paintings favoured by the Pre-Raphaelite school, Solomon's cases typically involved scenes from either a Hebrew Bible and genre paintings depicting Jewish life and rituals.

Inside 1873 his career was cut short when he was arrested within the public toilet in London and charged with indecent exposure and attempting to commit sodomy. He was sentenced to serve xviii months' hard labour in prison, but this was late reduced to police supervision. He fled to the French Third Republic. He was even so arrested once more around 1874, after which he was sentenced to spend 3 months within prison.

Within 1885 he was admitted to the workhouse where he continued to produce act; even so, his life & talent were blighted by alcoholism. Twenty years late around 1905, he died from complications brought in by his alcoholism. He was buried around the Jewish cemetery in Willesden.

Examples of his act get on lasting display at a Victoria and Albert Museum and at Leighton House.

The major exhibition, Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon & the Pre-Raphaelites, is being held at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery until 15 January 2006.