Rediscovering First Class and Second Class by Abraham Solomon: Online Talk with Dr Elena Cooper

Dr Elena Cooper is giving an online talk on Wednesday 30 September, from 7.30pm to 8.30pm, about the exhibition Rediscovering First Class and Second Class by Abraham Solomon. It's a free talk, though donations are accepted, and because it's online you can tune in from wherever you're sitting.

The talk looks at two of Solomon's paintings, First Class, the Meeting and Second Class, the Parting. When they first went up in 1854, they were daring depictions of modern life in the new social space of the railway carriage, a scene only made possible by the technological change of the time. There's another layer to their history, too: a parliamentary debate about copyright in 1858. Cooper, who is with CREATe at the University of Glasgow, explores how a painting's history changes the way we encounter it today.

Solomon (1823-1862) and his work fit right into the themes that marked the Gallery's 2026 reopening: art, social power, and who has the right to speak. The two paintings themselves—one of a first-class meeting, the other of a second-class parting—put those questions on full display, showing how class and status played out in the shared space of the train carriage. It's a look at how we see people and how we're seen, and how those dynamics shift when the setting changes.

So, if you're interested in art, social history, or just how a painting can carry more than one story at once, this is one to have on your radar. It runs from 7.30pm to 8.30pm on Wednesday 30 September, and it's free to join.