artist
Louis Aston Knight, commonly known as an expatriate, was in fact born in Paris to American parents, his father the celebrated American painter Daniel Ridgeway Knight. Receiving early and influential instruction from his father he later studied at the Académie Julian under Jules Lefebvre and Robert Fleury (1891-1898). Knight’s exhibition debut was at the Annual Paris Salon in 1894, thrust him into an increasingly successful career over which he was awarded numerous honors. He was notably the first American painter to win the Paris Salon gold medals for two consecutive years and his work was included in such distinguished venues as the Paris World’s Fair of 1900 and in 1927 he was made a Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur. Although he resided in Paris, Knight exhibited very frequently throughout the United States.
Description
Summer Landscape is an exceptionally fine example of Knight’s early twentieth-century landscapes. Looser in approach than his earlier academic paintings, he applies paint in dabs and flecks, describing a river and field just after a rain. Though the sunlight has pierced the clouds we know it is windy, evident in the ripples in the water, potentially on a cool Spring day. Rich and deep in atmosphere Knight’s focus is downriver and the distant hills. Eschewing the safety and comfort of the dry bank, Knight was determined to attain a real likeness of the delicate ripples in a pool or the current of a stream. It was often his practice, as we feel is the case in Summer Landscape, to stand in the water when painting. One might say Knight learned all he could from the institutions of Paris and then became a dedicated student of nature.
provenance
Berson Private collection, New Jersey
