Landscape painter, printmaker and art gallery director. The son of James Ashton and Mary Elizabeth Rawling, John William Ashton was born in York, England, on 20 September 1881. Ashton’s father was an artist who taught at the York School of Art, but, dissatisfied with his future prospects in England, he travelled to Adelaide in 1884 in search of opportunities while his wife and son remained in England. The following year Ashton (senior) established the Norwood Art School in Adelaide and later founded the Academy of Arts. Mary Ashton and her three-year-old son were reunited with James Ashton in 1884 and the family set up home in Norwood. In 1887 Ashton (senior) became the drawing master at Prince Alfred College, a position he held for forty years.

In 1889, the eight-year-old Will Ashton entered Prince Alfred College where he remained until 1897. Neither academic nor sporty (his school nickname was 'fatty’), Ashton passed his first grade art examinations in 1896, obtaining the grade of 'excellent’. After leaving school he started working in his father’s studio doing odd jobs such as stretching canvas and putting out the work for the students. He also painted still life and at weekends sketched in watercolour. One of his early watercolours was awarded a bronze star by the Royal Drawing Society, London. While working with his father, Ashton became friends with fellow students Hans Heysen, Hayley Lever and Gustave A. Barnes.

In 1898 Ashton and Heysen studied with the English émigré artist Archibald Collins in Adelaide. Later, Ashton departed Australia and travelled to England where he joined Julius Olsson’s School of Landscape and Sea Painting at St. Ives, Cornwall. Julius Olsson and his assistant Algernon Talmage instructed Ashton to paint boats, old buildings and the pretty St. Ives harbour; fellow Australian students at the school were A.J.W. Burgess and Charles Bryant.

In 1902 Ashton moved to France and enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris, where his teachers were François Schoomar and Marcel André Baschet; fellow students included E. Phillips Fox, David Davies, James Quinn, Ambrose Paterson and Heysen. Apart from his formal studies Ashton sketched at weekends in Paris streets or on the banks of the River Seine. His first great success was in 1904 when two works, The Wreck and Reed Waters, were exhibited at the Royal Academy. From that time onwards 'J. William Ashton’ dropped his first name and signed his work 'Will Ashton’ to avoid confusion with his father and Julian Ashton.

In early 1905 Ashton returned to Australia and took over his father’s outdoor sketching class. Late that year he exhibited work at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales annual show in Sydney, and the [National] Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) purchased A Winter’s Eve, Paris. During one of his sketching classes, Ashton met student May Millman and the couple married on 31 January 1906 in North Adelaide. In 1908, Ashton’s reputation was on the rise, especially after being awarded the Wynne Prize (the first of three wins) for Noontide, Burnside.

In 1914 Ashton travelled again to Europe, and his former teacher Julius Olsson asked him to take over his painting school in St Ives, with himself and Talmage as visiting professors, but World War I prevented the plan from going ahead. Before returning to Australia, Ashton bought works to the value of £2,000 for the Art Gallery of South Australia, and after returning home in 1918 was appointed to the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board (CAAB), a position once held by his father. Ashton remained on the CAAB for the rest of his life, and was appointed its chairman in 1953.

During the 1920s and early ’30s, Ashton was a regular visitor to continental Europe as well as Britain. In 1924 he travelled to Spain and visited the Prado where he saw the work of Velasquez and El Greco. While at the Prado, Ashton viewed the Goya etchings and after returning to Australia produced several European themed etchings and exhibited them with the Australian Painter-Etchers’ Society during the mid-1920s.

A change of subject matter occurred in 1927 when the artist travelled to the Australian Alps to paint. Although not the first Australian artist to paint the snowy peaks, Ashton was attracted by the chance of painting a difficult subject. He later wrote in his autobiography that snow was not easy to paint, “There is something crisp and precise about its character which always fascinates me” (Ashton, 1961, pg. 42). Ashton became a repeat visitor to the Mt. Kosciusko area and one of these mountain works, Kosciusko, won the Wynne Prize for 1930.

During 1930 Ashton spent several months painting in Concarneau in Brittany with the New Zealand born painter Sydney Thompson. The 1920s and early ’30s was the most successful period in Ashton’s career and saw many successful shows, the last being his 1936 exhibition at David Jones’ Art Gallery, Sydney. The following decade saw Ashton step back from full-time painting for a career in art administration. While painting became a part-time activity he won the inaugural Godfrey Rivers Prize for 1938, and the Wynne Prize, for the third and final time, in 1939.

After the resignation of J.S. MacDonald from the directorship of the AGNSW in 1936, Ashton was appointed his successor after narrowly defeating rival candidate Basil Burdett, seven votes to six, in the trustee’s election. While Ashton was less reactionary than his predecessor he was still conservative and suspicious of many new artistic trends. Bernard Smith, himself an AGNSW employee in the mid 1940s, later described Ashton in Australian Painting (pg. 163) as, “a sturdy and influential opponent of the post-Cézanne developments in contemporary painting.”

During his directorship (1937-44), Ashton oversaw several high profile exhibitions, including a large loan exhibition of 150 years of Australian art (1938), a loan exhibition of British and continental art (1939), and a memorial exhibition for Elioth Gruner (1940). Arguably, Ashton’s most important project was the Australian art exhibition that toured North America during 1941-45, this was the first comprehensive exhibition of Australian art ever shown in the USA and included works by Aboriginal artists.

Ashton believed that his time spent in North America was very important work, and he later described the tour in his autobiography as one of the most important missions of his life. While in North America, Ashton visited many museums and galleries and observed the latest trends in display, hanging and curatorship. He seems to have applied some of these new methods after his return to the AGNSW. Friend and trustee Lionel Lindsay later wrote that “the Gallery was never so well hung as during [Ashton’s] term of office.” (Comedy of Life, 1967, pg. 240)

Due to poor health, Ashton resigned from the directorship of the AGNSW in November 1943 but stayed on as acting director until mid-1944. This 1944 period saw the heated debate that occurred within the local art world after the awarding of the 1943 Archibald Prize to William Dobell for his portrait of Joshua Smith. In a final public comment on his time at the Gallery, Ashton complained of the 'serious overcrowding’ at the AGNSW and the urgent need to build the proposed eastern wing of the building and increase the State Government grant to the Gallery (Sydney Morning Herald, 29th April 1944, page 3).

After writing a report on the Queensland National Art Gallery in Brisbane, Ashton was recruited to the role of director of the new David Jones’ Art Gallery in June 1944. Dobell’s first exhibition at the Elizabeth Street building was an exhibition by the controversial portrait painter William Dobell, a personal favourite of the managing director of David Jones Ltd, Charles Lloyd Jones. During his three-year directorship, Ashton managed a broad range of art shows including solo exhibitions and art society events. Ashton resigned from the position of director of the David Jones’ Art Gallery in October 1947 so he could return to painting.

Ashton received many awards during his career, highlights included his election to membership of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the award of the OBE in 1941, the presentation of the Society of Artists medal for 1944, and a knighthood in 1960. After the death of his wife in 1958, Ashton married Winfreda Luxmoore in 1961. That same year Legend Press published a short illustrated memoir, The Life and Work of Artist Sir Will Ashton. The preface for this limited edition book was written by the Australian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, and included a 'tribute’ article by artist William Dargie. Ashton died of cancer on 1 September 1963. He was survived by his second wife and three sons from his first marriage.

Writers:

Silas Clifford-Smith Note:

Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2011

Status:

peer-reviewed