Ernest Parton (American, 1835-1923) was an expatriate American landscape painter who achieved enduring success in England for more than fifty years. Born in Hudson, New York, in the heart of the Hudson River Valley, he grew up surrounded by the region that had inspired Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and other founders of the Hudson River School. Trained informally by his older brother Arthur Parton, a student of William Trost Richards, Ernest honed his skills sketching and painting directly from nature. Early trips to Europe, including Scotland, England, and France, exposed him to the French Barbizon School and the late-Victorian landscape movement, which he combined with his Hudson River School roots to create a sophisticated, international style.

Parton’s works, often large-scale and richly atmospheric, captured the English and French countryside with a poetic, contemplative sensibility. He exhibited widely in his lifetime, including at the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, the National Academy of Design, and the Chicago World’s Fair, while his paintings were reproduced in art magazines and as fine prints. Although he spent much of his life abroad, he maintained strong ties to the American art scene and occasionally painted American landscapes for exhibition.