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The Nancy Smith
Online Exhibition
Categories of Pictures
[About Nancy Smith]
[Primitive]
[The Ages]
[The Cave Dweller]
[Robinson Crusoe]
[Hiawatha]
[The Pyranees]
[London Transport]
[Little Tree Dweller]
[The Threshold of History]
[Piers Plowman Histories]
[Children of Other Days]
[Unclassified Images]
[The Harvester - Withdrawn]
[Frames Test Card]
Introduction
NANCY SMITH is perhaps the least known of those forerunners of the modern style of art famously dated by Virginia Woolf as from about 1910. The sparkling freshness of her designs in poster colour still stand comparison with most subsequent work. Her eye for colour, and the no-nonsense strength of line make for a delightful nostalgic feeling for the days before two wars tore the world apart. The reason for her present obscurity is not far to seek. For some reason, or reasons unknown, she never exhibited her work, and consequently her name never appeared in catalogues of exhibitions, or in other literature of the art world. The most likely reason is that her early work consisted of instructional book illustration and her initial posters, neither of which were subjects for exhibition. Her later landscapes might well have been regarded as a form of relaxation, rather than competition. This obscurity is by no means confined to the art world and the general public. Her elderly remaining relatives have scraped the barrel of memory to provide the bare bones of this brief introduction, and are forced (and content) to allow her artistic talent to speak for her.
So the present reader will be informed that Nancy was born on 24th August, 1881, as the fourth of the five children of Frederick Smith and his wife Jane at Burlington Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Frederick was not only a dentist, but an acute business man, and a powerful Methodist local preacher. The first attribute resulted in his two sons, Harold and Fred, becoming dental surgeons; the second allowed him to provide for his three maiden daughters; the third may (or may not) have accounted for all three adopting Christian Science. The first would also appear to point to a dental gene in the chromosomes of this branch of the worldwide Smith family, for there was a fair sprinkling of dentist cousins in southern Lincolnshire, pre-eminent among them being Professor Arthur Hopewell Smith, whose tenure as the first dental professor at Philadelphia University is understood to have contributed to the supremacy of American dental practice.
The New World also attracted the eldest daughter, Jessie, to Boston, where she achieved high office at the headquarters of her faith. The second daughter, Minnie’s sole claim to fame appears to be as a governess to the late Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman, but she also helped to bring up the children of Sir Isaac Foot, the Plymouth solicitor, at Pencrebar, Cornwall, the best known of whom is Michael Foot. It is not clear at what age the third daughter left Chesterfield after her private education and shed her given name of Annie to spread her wings as one of the comparatively few women in the male-dominated art world of London. It is known that she had a studio at 15 Grosvenor Road, SW, by 1920, but this could have been earlier, because her one and only book THE MAKING OF SCHOOL ILLUSTRATIONS was published by Charles & Dible in 1909. There has been a persistent family understanding that she trained at the SLADE, although enquiry there has proved negative. Whether family misunderstanding, or a failure of the SLADE records to go as far back as 1900, by which date she would probably have enrolled, perhaps only time will tell. Anyone acquainted with her clarity of line would not be surprised that she was sufficiently concerned about art work in schools to write this book and provide 24 illustrations. Nor that she provided line drawings for the book CHILDREN OF OTHER DAYS by Elsa P Engvals. 20 of these were separately issued on card for individual colouring in schools.
The publisher was Sir Isaac Pitman, and the date unknown.
Within the year 1910 we find that she sat for her portrait by ARTHUR GARRATT. It appears that he was a prolific artist who altogether exhibited at the Royal Academy some 20 times, which seems to indicate that Nancy was by no means unknown at that date. There was, indeed, some family speculation that the portrait could have been due to a romantic association. But now, her first non-school work appears, as a pastel of Washington, W. Sussex, and once again, America is involved, since a copy of this was registered in 1920 under Act of Congress with the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
1n 1913, book illustration comes to the fore, admittedly in connection with education, as the title PIERS PLOWMAN HISTORIES – Pt 1 shows. This was published by George Philip & Son Ltd, 32 Fleet Street, and contained 16 colour relief half-tone plates by Nancy. Next year, follows THE THRESHOLD OF HISTORY by H.R. Hall, published by Harraps, and included only four colour plates, but some 7 or 8 line drawings. The instructional element is still present. But within a year appear two books published by Harraps involving illustrations pure and simple, though admittedly still for children. These were of two perennial subjects: Robinson Crusoe and Hiawatha. Unfortunately, there were only four colour plates in each, doubtless selected by reason of cost from eight available pictures for each subject. All eight are now made available to a welcoming public.
A keen eye viewing some of the illustrations will see the name HILDA BOOTH bracketed with Nancy, as co-artist. Little is known of her part in the collaboration, though it is understood that there was a deep friendship between the two. Nor is it known at what stage they became acquainted. Although there was a Booth family at Ashover, near Chesterfield, it has been impossible to establish any link. The obvious presumption is that they may have become acquainted during art training. A brief printout from the Internet describes Hilda as a miniature painter, who married John Booth, also a miniature painter, living in the Manchester area.
In 1915 we now come to a change of genre, in that Nancy was commissioned as one of the first women to produce posters for the LONDON UNDERGROUND. These were to publicise
regions reachable by Tube, and the two she produced were of HAMPSTEAD HEATH and PINNER VIA.
The trail goes faint until 1921, when we have paintings from a visit to Southern France and onwards to the Pyrenees. One of these watercolours is of SARE, in the Pyrenees. Most are undated, and it is not certain whether they were all produced on a single visit.
In 1922 she produced two further posters for the LONDON UNDERGROUND, this time depicting a scene at EPPING FOREST, and one described as RIVER SCENE (believed to be Maidenhead). This would have established her sufficiently as an accomplished poster artist to support another persistent family anecdote that she had at one time served on the same committee as TOM PURVIS, the uncrowned king of the poster world at his peak.
We have now reached a large 16 year gap in our knowledge of the subject, because the next we learn is that she retired, as an artist, to Liskeard, Cornwall, where she stayed briefly before moving out to a Cornish cottage at St Cleer, about 3 miles N.W. of Liskeard. It has been reported that while in Liskeard she unearthed some Roman coins in her garden.
In 1951 she moved to Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, where there was a brief family gathering.
In September, 1958, she moved to 12 Amberley Court, Mill Road, Worthing, Sussex, her last known address until her death, aged 81, at the Offington Park Nursing Home, Worthing, on 4th November, 1962.
It is hoped that this brief memoir will do something to shed new light on a hitherto neglected personality.
Information, comments or queries to be directed to info@nancysmithart.com.
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