Arthur Parton (1832-1914)

Arthur Parton 1842-1914

Born in New York City in 1842, Arthur Parton was a landscape painter who studied in Philadelphia under William T. Richards and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Parton gained from Richards a sound grounding in the technical aspects of his art.

Parton settled in New York City in 1865 and became a regular exhibitor at the National Academy of Design. In 1886, he received the gold medal of the American Art Association and the Temple Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He also won the competitive prize in the Paris Exposition in 1900. His works are represented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1869, Parton spent a year in Europe, where he was influenced by the Barbizon painters. His first pictures were shown in Philadelphia in 1862, but the works that brought him public prominence were On the Road to Mt. Marcy (1873, location unknown), A Mountain Brook (1874, location unknown) and Evening, Harlem River (1887, location unknown). His November, Loch Lomond, and Solitude (dates and locations unknown) attracted a great deal of attention at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 and gave him a national reputation. "In any foreign collection of paintings," the New York Evening Post said, "Mr. Parton's work would be distinctly American." He died in 1914 at age 71.

Memberships:

American National Academy

American Water Color Society

Artist's Fund Society

National Academy of Design Public

Collections:

Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York City