| Biography of old oil painting master Louis Aston Knight what we can copy |
|
Louis Aston Knight
American Naturalist painter
born 1873 - died 1948
Student of:
Jules Joseph Lefebvre
(1836-1911), Tony
Robert-Fleury (1837-1912).
Son of:
Daniel
Ridgway Knight (1839-1924). |
|
Louis Aston Knight was the
son of the American ex-patriot painter,
Daniel Ridgway Knight. Daniel Ridgway Knight
was born in America and began studying art
at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. In 1872,
Louis Aston Knight traveled to Paris and continued to study
at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Thereafter,
Louis Aston Knight remained in Europe, and studied in the
academic studios of the Romantic Salon
painters, Jules Ernst Meissonier and Charles
Gleyre and the Impressionists, Pierre
Auguste Renoir and Alfred Sisley. Although
Ridgway Knight, spent most of his life in
Europe, his American style and technique
show through. This typically American
approach towards painting was to influence
Louis Aston Knight as well.
In 1873, Louis Aston Knight was born in
Paris. Unlike his father, Aston Knight was
raised and educated in Europe. Knight
attended the Chigwell School in England for
his Liberal Arts Education and began his
artistic training, under the guidance of his
father. Later Louis Aston Knight studied formally with the
great French Romantic painters, Robert-Fleury
and Jules Lefebvre.
In 1894 Aston Knight debuted at the Paris
Salon, starting a highly acclaimed career.
Among his many awards, Louis Aston Knight won a Bronze medal
at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900,
an honorable mention at the Paris Salon in
1901, a gold medal in Lyon in 1903, a gold
medal in Geneva and in Nantes in 1904 and
Gold medals at the Paris Salon in both 1905
and 1906, earning him the title Hors
concours as the first American to win two
gold medals at the Salon in two consecutive
years. Knight, was also made a knight of the
Legion of Honor in 1924 becoming an officer
in 1928 and eventually a commander in 1934.
Louis Aston Knight is most famous for his
French landscapes. You will not find figures
in his work, due to an agreement, which
Louis Aston Knight made with his father, in order to keep their
work from looking too similar. This was
however unnecessary, because their work is
very different. Ridgway Knight painted
tightly, while Aston Knight's work shows a
much stronger influence of the
Impressionists with whom Louis Aston Knight was friendly.
Aston looked up to
Claude Monet, and visited him
from time to time at his home in Giverny.
Louis Aston Knight was particularly impressed with Monet's
gardens, and strove to cultivate a garden as
beautiful as the master's. Knight also
awarded prizes each year to the neighboring
peasants who kept the nicest gardens. This
ensured him of good models for his cottage
landscape paintings.
Gradually Aston Knight became well known in
the New York art scene and began to do some
of his work in the states. In 1911, Knoedler
and Co., held an exhibition of his
landscapes of the U.S.A. and France. His
exhibition at the Levy Gallery in New York,
in 1931 attracted much attention. In fact,
"Art News" critiqued the show (26 December
issue) and described his fame and plein-air
approach: |
|
"A group of new landscapes by Aston Knight,
the popular painter of the Normandy
Riverscape, is the Holiday attraction at the
Levy Gallery. Mr. Knight sticks closely to
his well established formula, doubtless due
to the tremendous acclaim acquired in his
earlier years when Hopkinson Smith
publicized him as the "painter in the high
rubber boots" for Mr. Knight was not content
with studying the action of the Normandy
streams from the comfortable banks.... used
to do on a pair of waist-high rubber boots
and setting up his easel in mid-stream,
paint the purling waters at first hand." |
|
Aston Knight was a favorite of American
presidents in his day. In 1922, President
Harding purchased a Louis Aston Knight, to
hang in the White House, and President
Coolidge held a private exhibition of
Knight's work during his presidency.
Many of his works have had international
acclaim and are housed in the art
collections of the Luxembourg Museum, Musee
des Colonies in Paris, in Nimes & Evreux
France and in the Museum of Fine Arts in
Toledo, Ohio and the Delgado Museum in New
Orleans. |
|
|
Exhibitions:
John Levy Galleries, N.Y., Nov. 24 – Dec. 6,
n.d.
Knoedler & Co., N.Y., Dec 26, 1911 – Jan 6,
1912
Detroit Museum of Art, March 18 – 30, 1914
Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY, May
1918 |
| |
|