Louis Aston Knight (1873 to 1948),
The son of renowned American expatriate genre painter, Daniel Ridgway Knight, Louis Aston Knight was born in Paris in 1873 and spent most of his life working in France. In addition to the artistic training he received from his father, Knight studied at the Academie Julian with Jules Lefebvre and T. Robert-Fleury from 1891 through 1895. Knight’s work departed from his father’s as he usually depicted flower gardens and pastoral landscapes without figures and began to incorporate elements of Impressionism that he learned from studying the work of Claude Monet. Like his father, Knight exhibited his work both in the U.S. and abroad and won several gold medals in international expositions, including the Paris Salon.
Information courtesy of Skinner, Inc., November 2008.
Born in Paris in 1873, Louis Aston Knight, the son of American genre painter and expatriate, Daniel Ridgway Knight, spent most of his life and career in France. While he studied at the Academie Julian in Paris with Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury from 1891 through 1895, Knight also received his artistic training from his father. His work departed from his father’s as Aston Knight depicted pastoral landscapes usually without figures and began to incorporate elements of Impressionism that he learned from the paintings of Claude Monet. Knight’s admiration for Monet’s gardens at Giverny inspired him to plant his own garden and, purportedly, Knight offered prizes to neighbors with the best gardens, ensuring he would have beautiful floral surroundings to paint. Around 1925, Knight moved to California and painted views of San Francisco, Santa Monica, and the Monterey Peninsula.
Information courtesy of Skinner, Inc., September 2006.