John Warner Norton was an American painter and muralist who pioneered the field in the United States.
Norton was born in Lockport, Illinois, the son of John Lyman Norton and Ada Clara Gooding Norton. The family ran the Norton & Co. of Lockport. Norton's study of law at Harvard University was broken off when the family's firm went bankrupt. Before, and after a period of living as a cowboy and enlisting with the Rough Riders, he studied art at the Art Institute of Chicago; he would later teach there. His students included Frances Badger. He was influenced by the Armory Show and the Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai.
Among his works are the landmark 1929 180-foot long ceiling mural for the concourse of the old Chicago Daily News Building; the Ceres mural in the Chicago Board of Trade Building; two large murals, "Old South" and "New South" commissioned by Holabird & Root for the Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama; his Tavern Club murals at the 333 North Michigan Ave. building, Chicago; his American Heritage Series at the Hamilton Park Field House, 513 W. 72nd St., Chicago; four murals at the St.