{{Short description|American illustrator and artist (1925–2022)}} {{Infobox person | name = Ronni Solbert | image = Ronni_Solbert.jpg | alt = | caption = Solbert in 2009 | birth_name = Romaine Gustave Solbert | birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|09|07}}<ref name=CLRC-1861>{{cite web |url=https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/4/resources/3286 |title=Finding Aid for the Ronni Solbert Papers, Collection Identifier CLRC-1861 |publisher=Children's Literature Research collections, University of Minnesota Libraries |access-date=26 April 2021}}</ref> | birth_place = Washington, D.C., U.S.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> | death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|06|09|1925|09|07}} | death_place = Randolph, Vermont, U.S. | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Illustrator, artist, photographer, author | years_active = 1951–2022 | known_for = | notable_works = ''The Pushcart War'', ''Bronzeville Boys and Girls'' }}
'''Romaine Gustave Solbert''' (September 7, 1925 – June 9, 2022)<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Risen |first=Clay |date=2022-07-21 |title=Ronni Solbert, Children's Book Illustrator, Dies at 96 |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/21/books/ronni-solbert-dead.html |access-date=2022-12-07 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> was an American artist, photographer, and author, known primarily as an illustrator of books, including ''The Pushcart War'' and more than a dozen other titles written by her partner Jean Merrill.
==Early life and education== Solbert was born in Washington, D.C. and grew up in Rochester, New York. Her father was Oscar Nathaniel Solbert, a Swedish immigrant who became a general in the United States Army, serving in both World War I and World War II. He later worked as an executive at the Eastman Kodak Company before becoming the first director of the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film. During his early military career, Oscar Solbert met and married Elizabeth Abernaty. Their daughter was given the name "Romaine," after an aunt, but that name was shortened to "Ronni."<ref name="Valley News">{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Nicola |title=A Story of Might and Right |url=https://www.vnews.com/Archives/2014/10/THePushcartWar-ns-vn-101114 |access-date=24 February 2021 |work=Valley News |date=11 October 2014}}</ref> Solbert attended Vassar College, graduating with honors in 1946, and continued her studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where she earned an M.F.A. in 1948.<ref name="Valley News" />
==Career== After graduating from Cranbrook, Solbert worked in Stockholm, Sweden, where she did translating and broadcasting work for the International Red Cross. Thereafter she taught children painting and sculpture at University of Rochester. She also studied and worked in Robert Blackburn's Graphic Workshop in New York City. She worked in India with support of the Fulbright Program and she served as a judge in Shankar's International Children's Art Competition (Merrill was also a Fulbright scholar in India.).<ref name="MerrillObit">{{cite news |last1=Vitello |first1=Paul |title=Jean Merrill, a Writer of Children's Underdog Tales, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/books/jean-merrill-childrens-book-writer-dies-at-89.html?_r=0 |access-date=1 March 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=11 August 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Ronni Solbert |url=https://www.nyrb.com/collections/ronni-solbert |website=New York Review Books |access-date=1 March 2021}}</ref><ref name="FTN">{{cite web |title=Paintings by Ronni Solbert |url=https://ftn-books.com/products/moma-new-york-ronni-solbert-introduction-leaflet-1959-mint |website=FTN Books |access-date=4 July 2022}}</ref>
Solbert returned to New York to pursue a career in art and illustration. In 1959, the Museum of Modern Art featured Solbert's paintings in one of the museum's "New Talent" exhibitions and one of her prints is held at MOMA.<ref name="MOMA">{{cite web |title=Press Release, New Talent XII: Ronnie Solbert |url=https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_press-release_326159.pdf?_ga=2.156542843.1988912564.1614625764-858885752.1614197674 |access-date=1 March 2021 |date=24 September 1959}}</ref><ref name="FTN" /><ref name="MOMA2">{{cite web |title=New Talent XII: Ronnie Solbert |url=https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3363 |website=MOMA |access-date=4 July 2022}}</ref>
While living in New York, Solbert met Merrill (who, coincidentally, had also grown up near Rochester). While in New York, the couple lived in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village and were active in the community.<ref name="Valley News" /> In 1962 Solbert and Merrill bought a farm in Washington, Vermont where they spent summers.<ref name="TA22">{{cite web | title=Ronni Solbert | website=Times Argus | date=2022-06-09 | url=https://www.timesargus.com/obituaries/ronni-solbert/article_bfcb26f5-e1fd-51d2-9fca-2418635f2c03.html | access-date=2022-07-20}}</ref> In 1971 they moved to Randolph, Vermont.<ref name="TA22" />
Solbert taught in the MFA Visual Arts Program at Vermont College in Montpelier.<ref name="TA22" /> A fire in her Randolph studio destroyed her paintings after which she began working in sculpture, photography and works on paper.<ref name="TA22" /> She continued to produce artwork into her 90s.<ref name="Compass Music and Arts">{{cite web | title=Your Junk, My Art | website=Compass Music and Arts | url=http://www.cmacvt.org/exhibits/YourJunkMyArt.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170430194437/http://www.cmacvt.org/exhibits/YourJunkMyArt.htm | url-status=usurped | archive-date=April 30, 2017 | access-date=2022-07-05}}</ref>
==Death and legacy== Merrill died of cancer in 2012.<ref name="MerrillObit" /> Solbert died in Randolph, Vermont, on June 9, 2022, at the age of 96.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ronnie Solbert obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/vnews/name/ronni-solbert-obituary?pid=202181449 |website=Legacy |access-date=13 June 2022}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Their joint papers from the 1960s are held by the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming.<ref name="Archives West">{{cite web | title=Jean Merrill and Ronni Solbert papers | website=Archives West | url=https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv213459 | access-date=2022-07-04}}</ref> Solbert's children's book illustrations are held by the Children's Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota.<ref name=CLRC-1861 />
==Works== While predominantly known as an illustrator, Solbert has also worked as an author, editor, photographer, sculptor and painter. Her published work includes:
=== As Illustrator === {{div col |colwidth=15em}} * Jean Merrill, ''Henry, the Hand-Painted Mouse,'' Coward, 1951.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Jean Merrill, ''The Woover,'' Coward, 1952. * Jean Merrill, ''Boxes,'' Coward, 1953.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Jean Merrill, ''The Tree House of Jimmy Domino,'' Oxford University Press, 1955.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Jean Merrill, ''The Travels of Marco,'' Knopf, 1956.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Henry Chafetz, ''The Lost Dream,'' Knopf, 1956.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Gwendolyn Brooks, ''Bronzeville Boys and Girls,'' Harper, 1957.<ref name=CLRC-1861/>{{efn|A new edition of these poems with illustrations by Faith Ringgold rather than Solbert was published in 2007.}} * Elizabeth Johnson, ''The Little Knight,'' Little, Brown, 1957.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Jean Merrill, ''A Song for Gar,'' Whittlesey House, 1957.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Elizabeth Low, ''Mouse, Mouse, Go Out of My House,'' Little, Brown, 1958. * Henry Chafetz, ''The Legend of Befana,'' Houghton, 1958.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Audrey McKim, ''Andy and the Gopher,'' Little, Brown, 1959.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Aline Harvard, ''Run Away Home,'' Lothrop, 1959. * Jean Merrill and Eunice Holsaert, ''Outer Space,'' Henry Holt, 1959. * Kay Boyle, ''The Youngest Camel,'' Harper, 1959.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Jean Merrill, ''Blue's Broken Heart,'' Whittlesey House, 1960. * Jean Merrill, ''Shan's Lucky Knife,'' W. R. Scott, 1960.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Jean Merrill, ''Emily Emerson's Moon,'' Little, Brown, 1960. * Parvati Thampi, ''Geeta and the Village School,'' Doubleday, 1960.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Marion Garthwaite, ''Mario,'' Doubleday, 1960. * Elizabeth Johnson, ''The Three-in-One-Prince,'' Little, Brown, 1960. * Elizabeth Low, ''Snug in the Snow,'' Little, Brown, 1963. * Jean Merrill, ''The Superlative Horse,'' W. R. Scott, 1963. * Jean Merrill, ''High, Wide and Handsome,'' W. R. Scott, 1964.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Jean Merrill, ''The Pushcart War'', W. R. Scott, 1964.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Violet Weingarten, ''The Nile, Lifeline of Egypt,'' Garrard, 1964.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Adele De Leeuw, ''Indonesian Legends and Folk Tales,'' Thomas Nelson, 1964.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Henry Chafetz, ''Thunderbird and Other Stories,'' Pantheon, 1965.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Mary Neville, ''Woody and Me,'' Pantheon, 1966.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Virginia Haviland, ''Favorite Fairy Tales Told in Sweden,'' Little, Brown, 1966. * Jean Merrill, ''The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars,'' Pantheon, 1967. * Jean Merrill, ''Red Riding,'' Pantheon, 1968. * Jean Merrill, ''The Black Sheep,'' Pantheon, 1969.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> * Kobayashi Issa, ''A Few Flies and I: Haiku by Issa,'' Pantheon, 1969 (also editor, with Merrill). * Jean Merrill, ''Mary, Come Running,'' McCall, 1970. * Giose Rimanelli and Paul Pinsleur, ''Pictures Make Poems,'' Pantheon, 1972. * Mary Ann Hoberman, ''Nuts to You and Nuts to Me,'' Knopf, 1974. * Salley Hovey Wriggins, ''White Monkey King,'' Pantheon, 1977.<ref name=CLRC-1861/> {{div col end}}
=== As author and illustrator === * ''32 Feet of Insides,'' Pantheon, 1970. * ''The Song that Sings Itself,'' Bobbs-Merrill, 1972.<ref name=CLRC-1861/>
=== As author and photographer === * ''I Wrote My Name on the Wall,'' Brown, 1971.<ref name=CLRC-1861/>
== References == ;Notes {{notelist}}
;Footnotes {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solbert, Ronni}} Category:1925 births Category:2022 deaths Category:20th-century American sculptors Category:20th-century American women artists Category:21st-century American sculptors Category:21st-century American women artists Category:American people of Swedish descent Category:People from Randolph, Vermont Category:Artists from Washington, D.C. Category:American LGBTQ artists Category:American LGBTQ photographers