LARGE LEON VICTOR SOLON PORTRAIT MAGAZINE COVER ART: Miss Alice Anderton, 1911, Pastel on Paper/Canvas, 56'' h x 39'' w, signed lower right, gilt wood period frame, 61'' x 44''. Leon Victor Solon, son of the renowned Minton ceramist Marc Louis Solon, was an English painter, ceramist, and graphic artist who worked both in Europe and in the United States and is best known for being a purveyor of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles including in New York. Almost life-sized Beaux Arts Belle Epoch Arts and Crafts Movement portrait of Miss Anderton, the daughter of New York City Socialites Mrs. and Dr. William B. Anderton, painted by Solon to celebrate her engagement to Mr. Jules Montant. Facing right in an almost life-sized portrait of Miss Anderton, the daughter of New York City Socialites Mrs. and Dr. William B. Anderton, was painted by Solon to celebrate her engagement to Mr. Jules Montant. Painted facing right in an almost three-quarter view, Miss Anderton sits before a wall decorated in a stylized Japonesque mode. Dressed an elegant kimono style silk robe decorated with foliage and birds in flight complementing the background. The portrait was reproduced on the cover of Town & Country, May 27, 1911, vol. 66, number 11. As stated: This portrait of Miss Anderton by Mr. Solon is a pastel in life size and is unique in style having much to recommend it in its decorative features aside from its value as a likeness. The kimono is soft, blue and with a touch of rose at the throat. The background of gray Japanese silk with dragons in gold are all in harmony with Miss Andertons beauty of which red-gold hair is an attribute. Miss Anderton's marriage to Mr. Montant was, for reasons unknown, short lived. The painting was returned to the artist Mr. Solon who during the 1940s left New York City to retire in Lakeland, FL. Having chosen to keep the portrait, it appeared hanging in the Solon home in a photograph of the artist reproduced in the Lakeland Ledger during the 1950s. Sometime after its appearance in the paper, perhaps after Mr. Solons death in 1957, the portrait was acquired by a prominent Lakeland community leader, where it has hung until this decade.