[[File:Léon Solon The Studio.jpg|thumb|Poster by Léon-Victor Solon advertising ''The Studio'' magazine.]] '''Léon-Victor Solon''' (17 April 1873 – 27 December 1957), son of ceramist Marc-Louis Solon, was an English painter, ceramist, and graphic artist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2000.48/ |title=Length | Léon Victor Solon | 2000.48 | Work of Art | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art |website=Metmuseum.org |date= |accessdate=2017-05-24}}</ref> He was a purveyor of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles and an important Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) figure.
==Personal life== Solon was the eldest son of Marc-Louis Solon, employee of the factory Mintons in Stoke-on-Trent, and Laure Arnoux, daughter of the artistic director there, Léon Arnoux. He was the brother of fellow artists Camille Solon and Albert Solon of Solon and Schemmel Tile Company.
His grave is located in Lakeland, Florida.
==Career== thumb|''Wisdom'' at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Verse from Isaiah 33:6. Sculptor Lee Lawrie and Colorist Leon V. Solon
Solon was artistic director of Mintons between 1900 and 1909, and made an important contribution to the development of Art Nouveau in the Minton ceramic collections. In 1901, he was joined by John William Wadsworth (1879–1955) and both incorporated motifs borrowed from the Viennese secessionist movement.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=41809144|title=Léon Solon and John Wadsworth: Joint Designers of Minton's Secessionist Ware Grant Muter|journal=The Journal of the Decorative Arts Society|quotation=ASPECTS OF BRITISH DESIGN 1870 - 1930|date=1985|pages=41–49}}</ref> He specialized in tube-lined vases and plaques marketed as "secessionist ware".<ref name="Muter">{{cite journal | jstor=41809144 | title=Leon Solon and John Wadsworth | journal=Journal of the Decorative Arts Society | year=1985 | author=Muter, Grant}}</ref>
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 (Thomas Wardle & Co. and Bernard Wardle & Co.);<ref>{{cite web|title=The Wardel Pattern Books Revealed|url=http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/collection/recentprojects/wardle/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203044031/http://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/collection/recentprojects/wardle/|archive-date=2013-12-03}}</ref> he also designed doublures for bookbinder G.T. Bagguley, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, who patented the ''Sutherland'' binding technique in 1895.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine & Applied Art|year = 1903|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xNsFfaPrLMcC&q=G.T.+Bagguley&pg=PA158}}</ref>
Solon emigrated to the United States in 1909 and in 1912 he became the artistic director of the American Encaustic Tiling Company based in Zanesville (Ohio), and specialized in the production of tile with slip decoration.
Leon V. Solon designed the color scheme for Rockefeller Center and was responsible for the polychroming of the famous sculptural decorations on the exterior of Rockefeller Center.<ref>{{cite book|title=Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning|isbn = 9780801878954|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0wsY4cJZHMC&q=leon+victor+solon+rockefeller&pg=RA1-PA136|last1 = Enterline|first1 = James Robert|date = 20 January 2004}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=LEON VICTOR SOLON: COLOR, CERAMICS AND ARCHITECTURE|date=September 2013|url=https://tilesinnewyork.blogspot.com/2013/09/leon-victor-solon-color-ceramics-and.html|accessdate=8 June 2017}}</ref> 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.<ref>Suzanne Loebl, America's Medicis: the Rockefellers and Their Astonishing Cultural Legacy, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY, 2010, p. 105</ref>
He is also one of the artists associated with the creation of the pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMAFM4_Philadelphia_Museum_of_Art_Pediment_Philadelphia_PA |title=Philadelphia Museum of Art Pediment - Philadelphia, PA - Smithsonian Art Inventory Sculptures on |website=Waymarking.com |date= |accessdate=2017-05-24}}</ref> In describing his polychrome work on the pediment, Solon stated, “Greek principle [of coloring] 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.”<ref>Leon V. Solon, “The Philadelphia Museum of Art”, Atlantic Terra Cotta, Vol. VIII, No. 11, February 1927, p. 4</ref>
<gallery> 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 </gallery>
[[File:Art Museum pediment.jpg|thumb|center|upright=4.2|''Western Civilization'' pediment, Philadelphia Museum of Art, C. Paul Jennewein, sculptor, Leon V. Solon, colorist]]
==Selected publications== *''Polychromy: Architectural and Structural, Theory and Practice''. The Architectural Record, New York, 1924.
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{commons category-inline|Léon-Victor Solon}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Solon, Leon-Victor}} Category:English ceramicists Category:English artists Leon-Victor Category:Artists from Stoke-on-Trent Category:British emigrants to the United States Category:English people of French descent Category:1873 births Category:1957 deaths