[4] On leaving school, he received further training from his father;[2] fellow students included W. C. Quin, Hans Heysen, and Hayley Leaver.

In 1905 he returned to Adelaide, where his "Boulevard Montparnasse, Paris" was hailed as a masterpiece,[6] and purchased by the National Gallery of South Australia.

His friend, Hans Heysen, wrote that the Seine had first ‘captured his heart’ during his student days, and the ‘fascination of its swiftly running waters, its bridges, its barges and those remarkable rows of buildings broken by the trees that adorn both sides have never ceased to hold him and to draw him again and again to Paris’.

The gallery had been criticised for inadequate lighting,[9] which he was able to address, but was constrained by the exigencies of wartime economy from much-needed extensions, and resigned in November 1943,[10] but hung on as acting director for another six months.

[11] None was chosen; John Henry Young, director of the Macquarie Galleries was instead taken on in a temporary capacity until the appointment of Hal Missingham.

[5] Ashton was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 1 January 1941[14] and was made a Knight Bachelor on 11 June 1960 for his service as chairman of the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board.