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Daniel Ridgway Knight

American Naturalist Painter

1839 - 1924


Photograph of Daniel Ridgway Knight


Biographical Information
by Howard L. Rehs

Daniel Ridgway Knight's works represent so many aspects of Nineteenth Century painting, including history, genre, landscape, portrait, and floral themes. In each work, all that is aesthetic is recorded with fine detail and skill. In order to faithfully record the scenery, Knight studied the different phases of the day and their effects on the environment. Knight built a glass studio outside of his home, enabling him to paint outdoors, even in the dead of winter. Whether he was concentrating on the evening with the glow of moonlight upon the Seine River or on a young woman in a brightly colored flower garden at midday, each scene is depicted with great detail and with specific attention to a realistic portrayal of the landscape.

Daniel Ridgway Knight was born on March 15, 1839 in Pennsylvania. He studied and exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he was a classmate of Mary Cassatt and Thomas Eakins. In 1861, he went to Paris to study at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Cabanel, and to apprentice in the atelier of Charles-Gabriel-Gleyre. He returned to Philadelphia in 1863 to serve in the Union Army. During the war, Knight practiced sketching facial expressions and capturing human emotion in his work. He sketched battle scenes, recording the war for history. He founded the Philadelphia Sketch Club, where he showed works that dealt with the Civil War, mythology, and scenes from opera. In 1871 Knight married Rebecca Morris Webster and after the wedding he began working as a portrait painter in order to make enough money to return to France.

In 1872, once settled in France, Knight befriended Renoir, Sisley, and Wordsworth, all of whose influences can be seen in his work. He also enjoyed a close relationship with Meissonier. In 1875 he painted a painting called Wash Day after a sketch by Meissonier for which he received critical acclaim. Knight was also strongly affected by the works of Jean-Francois Millet. In 1874 while painting in Barbizon, Knight went to visit Millet and found his view of peasant life to be too fatalistic. As opposed to Millet, Knight focused on depicting the rural classes during their happier moments. Other important influences were Bastien-Lepage, with whom he is most often compared and Jules Breton for his plein-air style.


Wash Day: 1875


Knight's works during the 1870's and 1880's focused on the peasant at work in the field's or doing the day's chores - collecting water or washing clothes at the riverside. His painting Hailing the Ferry, painted in 1888 and currently in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, depicts two peasant girls calling for the ferryman on the other side of the river. This work, considered one of the artist's masterpieces, captures all the elements of his pre-Rolleboise period - the subdued light and color, the finely detailed figures and the artist's acute attention to detail.


Hailing the Ferry: 1888


By the late 1890's, Knight established a home in Rolleboise, some forty miles west of Paris. Here he began to paint the scenes that were to make his work so sought after by contemporary collectors - views of his garden. His home had a beautiful garden terrace that overlooked the Seine - a view he often used in his paintings. Collectors from across the globe vied for these works, which featured pretty local girls in his garden. Works from this period include The Roses currently in the collection of the J.B. Speed Museum and The Letter in the Joslyn Art Museum - both of which feature pretty young women surrounded by lush flora.


Morning Rose
(aka The Roses): 1893


Knight received a third class medal at the Salon in 1888 for Hailing the Ferry and a Gold Medal at the Munich Exhibition that same year. In 1889 he was awarded a Silver Medal at the Paris Exposition and was knighted in the Legion of Honor, becoming an officer in 1914. In 1896 he received the Grand Medal of Honor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.



Daniel R. Knight died in Paris on March 9, 1924.


A Poissy Your Health


A Conversation


A Discussion Between Two Young Ladies: 1884


A Field of Flowers


A Garden above the Seine, Rolleboise: ca 1900


A Lovely Thought: ca 1885


A Maid in her Garden


A Moment of Rest


A Passing Conversation: 1885


A Pensive Moment


A Pensive Moment


A Pheasant in Hand


A Summer's Folly


A Woman With A Watering Can By The River


Afternoon Sun Rolleboise


Apple Blossoms in Normandy


Baiting the Hook: 1875


Beneath the Apple Tree


Brittany Girl Overlooking Stream


By the Riverside


Chrysanthemums


Clamming


Country Girl


Cutting Roses


Daydreaming


En Vendanges


Etretat Sur Mer: 1923


Fishing


Looking into the Stream


Gathering Apple Blossoms: 1907


Gathering Flowers


Gathering Leaves 1883


Gathering Roses


Gathering Wheat


Girl in a Landscape


Girl with a Basket in a Garden


Gossiping: ca 1895-99


In Her Garden


In the Garden


Sitting in the Garden


Julia among the Roses


Julia on the Terrace: ca 1909


La Petite Jardiniere


Maid among the Flowers


Maria and Madeleine Fishing


Maria and Madeleine on the Terrace


Maria by the Seine


Maria on the Terrace


Maria on the Terrace with a Bundle of Grass


Marie and Diane


Mending


Noonday Repast


Normandy Garden
(aka Le Gouter)


Normandy Maid


On the River's Edge


Peasant Girls in Flower Garden


Picking Flowers


Picking Poppies


Polishing the Urn


Resting Harvesters: 1875


Resting in the Garden


Returning Home


Seated Girl with Flowers


Shepardess and her Flock


Spring Blossoms


Springtime: 1921


Stopping for a Conversation


Summer Evening: 1897


The Conversation


The Fisherman's Daughter


The Flower Boat


The Flower Girl


The Golden Sunset


The Grass Cutter


The Harvesters


The Harvesters Resting (Detail): 1883


The Honeymoon Breakfast: 1887


The Laundress


The Oyster Gatherer: 1886


The Pet Dove


The Seine at Vernon


The Signal


The Stroller: 1893


The Two Friends


The Village Seamstress


The Wool Stockings


Time to Rest


Waiting


Watching


Watering the Garden: 1912


Woman in a Garden


Woman in Landscape


Women after Fishing on a Summer Afternoon


Women Washing Clothes by a Stream


Young Girl by a Stream


Young Girl Holding a Puppy


Source: Art Renewal Center

Source: Rehs Galleries, Inc.


This page is the work of Senex Magister

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