Léon-Victor Solon (17 April 1873 – 27 December 1957), son of ceramist Marc-Louis Solon, was an English painter, ceramist, and graphic artist. He was a purveyor of the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Moder ...

and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

styles and an important

Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It is the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native ...

figure.

Personal life

Solon was the eldest son of Marc-Louis Solon, employee of the factory

Mintons Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, ...

in Stoke-on-Trent, and Laure Arnoux, daughter of the artistic director there, Léon Arnoux. He was the brother of fellow artists

Camille Solon Camille Antoine Arnoux Solon (1877–1960) was a British muralist and ceramist of French descent. He was born in Staffordshire, England to French parents, and emigrated to the US, where he worked with architect Julia Morgan doing painting and til ...

and Albert Solon of

Solon and Schemmel Tile Company Solon and Schemmel Tile Company (S&S) was a tile pottery business in San Jose, California from 1920 – 1936. The company's tiles adorn Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco and the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California. Other projects included t ...

. His grave is located in

Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is the most populous city in Polk County, Florida, part of the Tampa Bay Area, located along Interstate 4 east of Tampa. According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau release, the city had a population of 112,641. Lakeland is a principal c ...

Career

Solon was artistic director of Mintons between 1900 and 1909, and made an important contribution to the development of

art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Moder ...

in the Minton ceramic collections. In 1901, he was joined by

John William Wadsworth John William Wadsworth (1879–1955) was a British ceramicist. After studying at the Royal College of Art, he began his career at the Mintons company in Stoke-on-Trent, where he collaborated closely with Léon-Victor Solon on art nouveau designs. ...

(1879–1955) and both incorporated motifs borrowed from the Viennese secessionist movement. He specialized in tube-lined vases and plaques marketed as "secessionist ware". While based in Staffordshire, he worked not only in ceramics, but also in other local industries: he produced textile designs for the Wardle family of silk dyers and printers based in

Leek The leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of '' Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek (syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk. The genus ''All ...

( Thomas Wardle & Co. and Bernard Wardle & Co.); he also designed doublures for bookbinder G.T. Bagguley, of

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of ...

, who patented the ''Sutherland'' binding technique in 1895. Solon emigrated to the United States in 1909 and in 1912 he became the artistic director of the

American Encaustic Tiling Company The American Encaustic Tiling Company was founded in New York, New York in 1875, later establishing a factory in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1892. Their tiles were intended to compete with the English tiles that were selling in the United States for use ...

based in Zanesville (Ohio), and specialized in the production of tile with slip decoration. Leon V. Solon designed the color scheme for

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco ...

and was responsible for the polychroming of the famous sculptural decorations on the exterior of Rockefeller Center. Solon first colored Lee Lawrie's Wisdom, Sound, and Light sculpture at the entrance of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and due to the quality of his work he was then hired to be the colorist for the entire public art project at Rockefeller Center. He is also one of the artists associated with the creation of the pediment of the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin F ...

. In describing his

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statue ...

work on the pediment, Solon stated, “Greek principle

f coloring F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''. Hist ...

was absolutely adhered to; this consists in restricting color to decorative features and developing color elaboration in inverse relation to structural significance. ...the main aim was to produce a distinctive color quality upon each member or feature, to prevent unrelated items associating in effect through similarity of coloring.”Leon V. Solon, “The Philadelphia Museum of Art”, Atlantic Terra Cotta, Vol. VIII, No. 11, February 1927, p. 4 File:NYC - Rockefeller center - 1557.jpg, "Winged Mercury" - Rockefeller center File:Rockefeller Center NYC 02.jpg, "Progress" - Rockefeller Center File:Art Museum pediment-detail-1.jpg, Pediment detail - Philadelphia Museum of Art File:PP D287 poster by leon solon.jpg, Poster by Leon Solon

Selected publications

*''Polychromy: Architectural and Structural, Theory and Practice''.

The Architectural Record ''Architectural Record'' is a US-based monthly magazine dedicated to architecture and interior design. "The Record," as it is sometimes colloquially referred to, is widely-recognized as an important historical record of the unfolding debates in ...

, New York, 1924.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Solon, Leon-Victor English ceramicists English artists Leon-Victor People from Stoke-on-Trent British emigrants to the United States English people of French descent 1873 births 1957 deaths