Harbour glimpse

Sir John WIlliam (Will) 1881-1963 son of James Ashton. He migrated to Adelaide with his parents and was educated at Prince Alfred College in 1889-97, then did odd jobs in his father’s studio and studied drawing part time. He met Hans Heysen, who became a lifelong friend. In 1900 Will left for England to work under the seascapist Julian Olsson at St Ives, Cornwall. He spent the winter of 1902-03 at the Acad�mie Julian, Paris, with E. Phillips Fox, David Davies and Heysen. In 1904 Ashton had work accepted by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and the Salon de la Soci�t� des Artistes Fran�ais, Paris, but next year he returned to Adelaide. The sale of ‘Boulevard Montparnasse, Paris’ for 150 guineas to the National Gallery of South Australia enabled him to marry May Millman (d.1958), one of his students, on 31 January 1906 at Christ Church, North Adelaide. After holding successful exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide, in 1908 he won the Wynne prize for landscape. In 1912-14 he painted in Britain, Europe and Egypt. Back in Australia for a year, he felt his prospects were better overseas, and took his family to London in 1915. Prevented by an arthritic condition from joining the Australian Imperial Force, he became a voluntary driver. He won the Wynne prize in 1930 and in 1939. Will Ashton had worked mainly in oils from about 1910.