Louis Aston Knight (1873-1948) was the son of the American painter, Daniel Ridgway Knight. 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 he 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, he 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.
Louis Aston Knight is best known for his French landscapes. Aston Knight looked up to Claude Monet, and visited him from time to time at his home in Giverny. He 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 insured 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.
