EUGENE LESLIE SMYTH(e) 1857-1932. Etching, 12-1/2" x 15-3/4" measured from the back (appears to include margins as measured from the back) (matted size: 15" x 18") signed lower right: E.L. Smyth. Condition: Mat is brittle and has breaks, mat has toning and dirt as well, print has some brown dirt on bottom edge and some brown vertical lines coming up into the print at bottom center that do no appear to be natural to the piece, browning on back of print, print has been glued to the mat - SOLD AS FOUND, AS IS.
Eugene Leslie Smyth was born in New York in 1857. Smyth began to study under Frank Millet in 1875; George Inness 1884-5; R.U. Shurleff and D.W. Tryon 1885-6.
Smyth won second prize ($300) Boston Arts Club 1885 and exhibited practically in all exhibitions in 1885-1900. Illustrating magazine ads with Santa Fe, Michigan Central, and Milwaukee, St. Paul 1900-5. Since 1905, he has painted privately and exhibited occasionally. He was a member of the Providence Art Club and A.E. Club. He knew well Winslow Homer, A.H. Wyant, Thomas Hill, J. Francis Murphy, Charles Davis, and was helped by all very kindly. Eugene Leslie Smyth died on May 3, 1932.
The following was from his obituary:
Eugene L. Smyth well-known landscape painter died May 3 (1932) at Townsheld, his death being caused by cerebral apoplexy. Mr. Smyth was born in New York City in 1857. His early boyhood was spent in Orange, N.J. and Lynn, Mass. In 1876, while his parents were living in Northwood, N.H. he entered Brown University. After leaving college, Mr. Smyth resided for a few years in Hartford Conn., where he married Miss Mary Buckland and began his lifelong career as a landscape painter.
In 1888, one of his pictures exhibited in the Boston Art Club, attracted much attention and was awarded the first prize. Encouraged by this success, Mr. Smyth returned to Providence, where he developed a style of painting which has made his pictures beloved by those who appreciate the beauties of nature. He was a master of color and possessed the rare facility of being able to reproduce on canvas the quiet tones of springtime as well as the more brilliant coloring of a Vermont autumn. What he loved best was a hillside in the late afternoon with a cloud in the background, reflecting the colors of the setting sun.
Six years ago, while residing in Chicago, Mr. Smyth was operated upon for an infection in the left side of his face. This operation, while it was successful from the surgical standpoint, necessitated the exposure of the nerves of the tongue and lower jaw and has caused Mr. Smyth constant pain. Yet in spite of physical distress, he retained his cheerfulness and continued to paint until the end.
Mr. Smyth's artistic genius was inherited. His father, David M. Smyth, the inventor of the book-sewing machine, was an artist of ability, as well as a poet and has left in a poem called "The Hermit of the (obscured by wrinkle) Bart" many fine descriptions of familiar scenes in the White (obscured) Mat. His mother was wonderful needle-woman. In 1863, when only 18 years old, she received a medal of honor for a tapestry picture entitled, "The Last Supper". This picture is at present in the Wadsworthh Athenaeum in Hartford, Connn. Mr. Smyth first visited Townsend in the summer of 1891 while his brother, David Smyth, was principal at Leland & Gray seminary and to Townsend he returned to spend the last years of his life. He loved the hills and valleys of Vermont. He will be buried in Oakwood cemetery Friday.
The following was submitted as a bulletin, August 2004, Dorothy Johnson, "This is what was taped to the back of my Smyth (painting)."
Born in New York, Eugene Smyth was a landscape painter who lived primarily in Providence, Rhode Island where he was a staff member of Tilden-Thurber Company. He exhibited at the Brooklyn, New York Art Association in 1883 and the Boston Art Club from 1884 to 1888.
Some of his work is in Santa Fe Railway Collection and in the Smithsonian Collection with dates indicating he was in Southern California as early as 1892 when he painted "Sierra Madre Mountains from Pasadena."
Source: Askart:
References include:
Joachim Busse's Internationales Handbuch Aller Maler Und Bildhauer des 19. Jahrhunderts
Davenports Art Reference & Price Guide 1999/2000
Havlice's Index to Artistic Biography, 1st Supplement

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