Sir John William Ashton

Sir John William Ashton was born on 20 September 1881 in York, England. He was the son of an artist James Ashton and migrated to Australia with his family. Ashton was educated at Prince Alfred College in 1889-97 and undertook various jobs at his father’s studio.

In 1904 London's Royal Academy of Arts and Paris's Salon de la Société des Artistes Français accepted pieces of his work for exhibition. After marrying his student May Millman, Ashton ran successful exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide and won the 1908 Wynne prize for landscape. He traveled with his family overseas where he felt his prospects as an artist were better, returning to and from Australia during his working years.

Ashton became a renowned and prominent figure in the Australian art scene. In 1937, he became director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and undertook work to improve the buildings lighting, in 1944-47 he was director of David Jones' Art Gallery, from 1918 a member of the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board and chairman in 1953-62. He was appointed an O.B.E. in 1941 and knighted in 1960. He passed away in 1963 at his home in Sydney.