by the time had his first solo show...

[GoldfishLord]

He decided to become an artist at the age of five, but was 30 by the time had his first solo show: he liked to rework his paintings,......By the time of his death, Hodgkin was a master of colour, remarking “I have ways of making yellow melancholy.” Sir Howard Hodgkin died on 9 March 2017 at the age of 84.
(Reference: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20171222-arts-and-culture-stars-who-died-in-2017 )
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1. I'd like to know if the red part is natural and grammatically correct. I think that the word "he" should be inserted beween "time" and "had".
2. I'd like to know what the blue part means in that context.

 

[GoesStation]

1. You're right.
2. The artist knows techniques for blending and applying yellow colors to evoke melancholy in the viewer.

 

[Tdol]

When he had would work better for me.