Dwight William Tryon was an American painter who was born in 1849 in Hartford, Connecticut, and died in 1925 in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Tryon had no formal training in fine arts when he began his painting career, selling his first painting at the age of 21, in 1870. He continued to sell his paintings in the immediate area of his birth, New England, and had a successful show and sale at the National Academy of Design in 1873.

At about this time Tryon’s artistic perspective was confirmed. He married and left his book store job and pursued his art full-time. He began his professional career painting seascapes and harbor views, but it wasn’t long before Tryon’s style shifted to what is known as the Barbizon school of painting.

In 1876 Tryon made the decision to advance his technical painting skills and study formally, something he never did before. Deciding to study painting in Paris, Tryon sold off all his paintings at auction and travelled to Europe with his wife with the help of a benefactor.  He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and several private instructors.  Although Tryon was in Paris while the school of impressionism was thriving, Tryon maintained his place in the Barbizon school.

In 1881 Tryon returned to the U.S. and settled in New York.  He built a summer home in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts in 1887, making this his real permanent home for the rest of his life, venturing to New York only for the winter each year.