Ernest Lawson Biography

Painter (1873–1939)

Painter Ernest Lawson is known for his impressionistic urban landscapes using thick, intense color. His major work includes Spring Night, Harlem River.

Synopsis

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on March 22, 1873, painter Ernest Lawson studied at the Art Students League in New York with J. Alden Weir and John Twachtman (1891), and later in Paris at the Académie Julien (1893). Upon his return to the United States, he settled in upper Manhattan and produced his famous impressionistic urban landscapes, which linked him to the Ashcan school. His typical use of thick, intense color, often applied with a palette knife, can be seen in “Spring Night, Harlem River” (1913), one of his most prominent works. Lawson died on December 18, 1939, in Miami Beach, Florida.