Pastoral and riparian scenes, views of unspoiled 19th-century America, flowed from the brush of Impressionist painter John Joseph Enneking (1841-1916). Born into a farming family in Minster, a small town in western Ohio, Enneking showed early artistic talent. He sketched for his childhood friends, who paid him one cent for each drawing of a horse. Enneking's father Joseph, however, did not approve of such pastimes. Joseph meted out strict punishment—a thrashing—for at least one instance of charcoal illustration on the Enneking family barn door. In contrast, Enneking's mother Margaretha supported her son's desire to become an artist: he often worked at her kitchen table. Enneking later credited Margaretha, who died suddenly when Enneking was only 15, for introducing him to the wonders of nature. Enneking Senior died in the same year, leaving John Joseph, although a ward of his aunt and uncle, fundamentally alone.