Julian Ashton

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Julian Rossi Ashton (27 January 1851 – 27 April 1942) was an Australian artist and teacher, known for his support of the Heidelberg School and for his influential art school in Sydney.

Ashton was born in Addlestone, Surrey, England and arrived in Australia in 1878 with a background in the contemporary French realism of the Barbizon School, which emphasised painting en plein air (i.e. direct from nature, as opposed to studio-based painting), and which laid the basis for the Impressionist movement. As a Trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales he championed emerging Australian artists of the Australian Impressionist or Heidelberg School, and the Gallery's decision to collect these works owes much to his influence.

According to James Gleeson, Ashton's oil paintings, much-admired in his own lifetime, "now seem to be so mannered and limited that is is difficult to understand the enthusiasm they once aroused," and his reputation as an artist rests instead on a number of "charming and unaffected" watercolours.

Julian Ashton Art School The Sydney Art School (today the Julian Ashton Art School), which Ashton established in 1890, has been one of the most influential in Australia. Julian Ashton students have included Elioth Gruner, George Lambert, Thea Proctor, Adrian Feint, Sydney Long, Howard Ashton (Julian's son), Dorrit Black, J J Hilder, William Dobell, Eric Wilson, Jean Bellette, Douglas Dundas, Arthur Freeman, William Dadswell, John Passmore, Joshua Smith, Max Dupain, John Olsen, Michael Johnston, Brett Whiteley, Nigel Thomson and Salvatore Zofrea. Howard Ashton's son, J. Richard Ashton and his wife Wenda ran the School from 1960, when, among many gifted artists, Ian Chapman and Archibald Prize winner Francis Giacco and attended, until 1977 when Phillip Ashton (Richard's son) became Principal, this being the time of Haydn Wilson, political cartoonist Bill Leak and artist Paul Newton.