# Ridgway Knight artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/ridgway-knight/
Profile generated: 2026-05-16T19:11:23.238Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1839-03-13
- Death date: 1924-03-09
- Nationality: American
- Movements: Academic Realism
- Common media: Oil on canvas

## About Ridgway Knight

Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839–1924) was an American painter born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, who spent much of his career working in France. Recognized for his detailed depictions of rural and peasant life, Knight studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became closely associated with the French academic realist tradition. He settled in Rolleboise, near the Seine, where the surrounding countryside provided the setting for many of his best-known canvases. Knight exhibited widely, including at the Paris Salon, and received numerous honors during his lifetime. His son, Louis Aston Knight, also became a noted painter. With over 340 works documented in auction records, Knight remains a figure collectors encounter regularly in the 19th-century European and American painting market.

## Common works and media

Knight is most widely recognized for oil-on-canvas paintings depicting young peasant women in outdoor settings — gardens, riverbanks, and village paths — often rendered with meticulous attention to natural light and botanical detail. He also produced landscape views of the Seine valley near Rolleboise, floral still-life elements within genre compositions, and smaller preparatory oil sketches. Works on paper, including drawings and watercolor studies, surface less frequently but are documented in museum and auction records. Print reproductions of popular compositions were produced during and after his lifetime.

## Market and appraisal context

Daniel Ridgway Knight's works appear regularly at major auction houses in both European and American painting sales. His large-format oil paintings of peasant women in garden and riverside settings tend to attract the strongest bidder interest. Key valuation factors include the painting's dimensions, the specificity of the Rolleboise-period subject matter, provenance documentation, exhibition history, and condition. Smaller studies, sketches, and works on paper trade at lower levels. Because Knight's output was prolific and varied in scale, collectors should evaluate each work individually rather than relying on general price ranges.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from authority files and biographical sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. The information here is drawn from Getty ULAN, VIAF, the RKD, Wikidata, and other cited sources.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q481259
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ridgway_Knight
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500031994
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/76585808/
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/45053
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr89012981