Birch on the Shore

View Similar Items

William Deshazo - William de Shazo - Pacific Seascape

Kenneth Davies - Boat Docked On The Shore

Daniel Blagg - Contemporary American Nostalgic Sign of MoonLite Drive-In Theatre in West Texas

Daniel Blagg - Large, Retro, Oil Painting on Canvas

Daniel Blagg - Contemporary American Nostalgia Sign of Chinese Restaurant w/ Blue Sky

Daniel Blagg - Contemporary American Nostalgic Sign of a Children's 'Play Land' on a Rainy Day

Daniel Blagg - Contemporary Oil of Psychic Reading, Tarot Card, and Palm Reading Neon Sign

Daniel Blagg - Large Contemporary Oil Painting of Americana Themed Rustic Road Sign in Texas

Daniel Blagg - Colorful and Blue American Contemporary Oil of Funny Sign Reading, "Drugs."

Daniel Blagg - Contemporary, Dark, American Oil Painting on Canvas

Daniel Blagg - Contemporary Oil of Dallas Cowboys Tribute Football Field Celebrating Texas

John Dowd - Late Day

1 of 5

Arthur Parton
Birch on the Shore

About the Item

Oil on Canvas, 24 x 16 image size, signed lower right For more than fifty years, the expatriate American artist Ernest Parton enjoyed great success in England with his paintings of the English and French countryside. A true cosmopolitan, Parton did works combining elements of the Hudson River School tradition that he was trained in as a young man with influences drawn from the French Barbizon School and the late-Victorian landscape movement to create a sophisticated international style that made him a sought after and affluent London painter. Parton won his fame by showing his works in the major salons and exhibitions of the day including the Royal Academy, The Royal Scottish Academy, the National Academy of Design in New York, the Paris Salon, the Exposition Universelle in Paris and the Chicago World’s Fair. The large-scale paintings that he completed for these major shows and expositions – works such as The Waning of the Year or When Lingering Light Greets Night’s Pale Queen – were reproduced in art magazines and as fine prints, securing his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. Ernest Parton was born into a large and talented family who lived in the riverside community of Hudson, New York, located in the Hudson River Valley, just north of New York City. His father George Parton (1812-1872), who came from Birmingham, England, immigrated to the United States in 1833 and married Elizabeth Woodbridge of Mystic, Connecticut the following year. The Parton family grew rapidly, the growth rate only interrupted by George Parton’s two lengthy trips west, in 1849 and 1852, where he searched in vain for fortune in the gold fields of California. Of twelve children, only six survived to adulthood, three girls and three boys, all of whom became fine artists. In 1873, after he had sufficient confidence in his art, Ernest Parton followed in his older brother’s footsteps and left for an extended trip to Europe. Because Arthur’s paintings of the Scottish lochs and English countryside were selling well in America, the trip was probably motivated as much by the realities of the commercial marketplace as it was by artistic reasons. Parton landed in Glasgow, painted in the Scottish Highlands, then in the scenic Lake District of England and finally in the Welsh countryside. He soon found that he enjoyed England and that in return, English buyers responded to his work. Ernest’s success motivated Arthur to give him some sage advice once again, “We read that you appear to be getting along in a swimming manner…Certainly I should try to make the most of your opportunities while there, chiefly on account of the flatness of everything in New York and all across the country.” Parton installed himself in a studio on Newman Street in London, and set about adapting to a new land and a somewhat different culture. With the U.S. mired in a long period of economic doldrums, Parton found commercial success in England and soon became a respected painter in the late-Victorian artistic milieu. As an American expatriate artist, he was in good company, for in the last decades of the century John Singer Sargent, George Boughton, Frank Millet, James McNeil Whistler, and Edwin Austin Abbey had all settled in England. Eventually he lived in fashonable St. John's Wood and had a studio in picturesque Wargrave-on-Thames. In 1875, two of Ernest Parton's works were accepted by the Royal Academy, and he began a long run of success in the Academy's annual exhibitions. In 1876, he painted extensively on the Continent, doing sketches at Lake Como and painting in the Italian countryside. In 1877 his interest in the French Barbizon School sharpened, and he became part of a circle of Anglo-American painters who spent their summers in the French countryside. In 1879, the Royal Academy's Chantrey Bequest purchased Parton's picture The Waning of the Year for the permanent collection. In addition to his English subjects, Parton traveled and painted extensively in France, and contemporary critics saw a marked difference between his French and English pictures. While most of his paintings were painted at the end of the day, which used to be called "eventide," the French paintings tended to be more atmospheric, revealing the influence of the Barbizon School. This influence was inevitable as he was part of a circle of painters that painted and socialized in the small village of Grez-sur-loing, a short distance from Barbizon. Even though he spent most of his life as an expatriate, Parton's American heritage was important to him, and he continued to send paintings home for exhibition. In 1893, he sent When Daylight Dies and Close of the Day home for the World's Columbia Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair, where they were exhibited in the American Pavilion. Parton also exhibited with the National Academy of Design in New York. Some of the paintings were American scenes that he painted on trips home; others were Barbizon-tinged scenes of rural France, and the remainder were his depictions of the English countryside. At the end of his life, Parton returned home one final time to die at the age of eighty-eight. Over the course of his long life, the world of art had changed dramatically, with artistic tastes and styles shifting rapidly as one new movement succeeded another. However, throughout his lifetime, Ernest Parton remained true to his own vision of the landscape - a contemplative, restful and poetic transcription of the natural world.

Creator:
Arthur Parton (1842 - 1914, American)
Dimensions:
Height: 32 in (81.28 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)Depth: 3 in (7.62 cm)
Movement & Style:
American Realist
Period:
Late 19th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Hudson, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU782310822