Known for Barbizon and Impressionist styles, Enneking was one of the most popular landscape painters of New England and one of its most successful financially. Enneking held membership at the Boston Art Club, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts and the Salmagundi Club. His works are part of the collections of the Boston Museum of Art and the Worcester Art Museum, Farnsworth Art Museum,etc.

Born on an Ohio farm and orphaned as a teenager. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted on the Union army but was severly wounded and returned to Cincinnati. In 1868 he went to Boston, where he studied lithography and began to paint landscapes. The catalyst for his success came while studying in France with Leon Bonnat and Charles Francois Daubigny during the 1870s on an extended stay, and when he is said to have painted with Monet. Enneking returned to Boston in 1876, and in 1878, his first solo in Boston sealed his reputation. Beginning in the early 1880s he spent summers in North Newry, ME. He also painted frequently in the White Mountains, favoring its trout brooks and woodland scenes.