Background
Solon was born in Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne.
Solon was born in Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne.
Despite some family resistance to his becoming an artist, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and with Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran.
His work commanded high prices in the late Victorian period as a leading exponent of the technique of ceramic decoration called pâte-sur-pâte. One of his vases, believed to be his largest, is on display at Osborne House. Some of Solon"s work came to the attention of the art director of the Sèvres Pottery.
Solon was employed there from 1862-1870 as a ceramic artist and designer, and he learnt and greatly improved the technique of pâte-sur-pâte.
His subjects included portraits, female figures, putti, small animals, and birds, in styles derived from Classical Greece, the Renaissance, 17thand 18th-century paintings, and Victorian postcards. Solon moved to England in 1870, at the time of the Franco-Prussian War.
He found employment at Mintons Limited, and settled at Nº1, The Villas, Stoke-on-Trent. Mintons experienced more demand for pâte-sur-pâte ceramics than Solon could meet working on his own, and from the 1870s he trained a number of English apprentices including Frederick Alfred Rhead.
Solon married Laure, the daughter of Minton"s art director, Léon Arnoux.
Their eldest son, Léon-Victor Solon (1872–1957), joined Minton in the 1890s and became art director (1900-1909). Leon made an important contribution to art nouveau ceramics at Minton before moving to the United States of America.
During his early years in Staffordshire Solon collected local pottery. He used the collection as the basis of his 1883 publication, "The Art of the Old English Potter", a book about pottery produced before Josiah Wedgwood transformed the industry.
Other publications include:
A History and Description of Italian Maiolica (London, 1907)
Ceramic Literature (London, 1910)
He also collected books about ceramics.
After his death, his library was acquired by the local technical college with funds provided by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.
