Leon Vilaincour (born Leon Julius Pauker; 17 June 1923 – 8 February 2016) was a Polish-born British painter and educator.
Life
Vilaincour was born in Kraków, Poland, to Zygmunt Pauker, a former Austro-Hungarian officer, and Gustawa (née Löffelholz), a dressmaker. His family was of Jewish origin. In 1938, as Nazi persecution intensified, he was sent to England for safety. He made a final visit to Poland in 1939 just before the German invasion; most of his family perished in the Holocaust, except for his mother and one surviving aunt. He changed his surname from Pauker to Vilaincour during his wartime service in the British army. He became a British citizen in 1947.
He studied at the Central School of Art and Crafts in London (relocated to Northampton during the war) and later taught there. In 1950, he began a nearly 40-year teaching tenure at the Chelsea School of Art. In 1948, he married New Zealand-born painter and woodcarver Roberta Cameron Smith.
Work
Vilaincour's large oeuvre consists primarily of oil paintings and watercolours. His stylistic development spanned many decades, beginning with figurative and landscape works influenced by the Barbizon School, then moving through textured experimental compositions using powdered metals in the 1950s. From the late 1960s, he shifted focus to French history, particularly the Napoleonic era, and later incorporated theatrical, layered compositions with bright palettes and motifs such as painted pearl screens. Recurring themes include Viennese café culture, French music, European history, exile, and memory.
Two of his oil paintings — A Life (1984–85) and 1804-1995 (1995) — are held in the Tate Collection. Four paintings are in the Arts Council Collection. He exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions in the 1970s and was a prize-winner at the 13th John Moores Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Awards
- Arts Council Major Award (1977)
- Lorne Award (1981)
Major Exhibitions
- 1964: New Art Centre, Sloane Street, London
- 1982: Knoedler Kasmin Gallery, Cork Street, London
- 1983: Serpentine Gallery, London (Arts Council of Great Britain)
- 1992: Rye Art Gallery, East Sussex
Death
Vilaincour died in London on 8 February 2016 at the age of 92.
