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Minnie Smythe

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Minnie Smythe
Born1872
St Pancras, London
Died1955
St Pancras, London
Known forWatercolour
FatherLionel Smythe

Minnie Smythe RWS (1872–1955) was a British landscape watercolourist. Her paintings often depicted the figures and countryside of the Pas-de-Calais region of France.

Biography

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Smythe was born in 1872 at St Pancras, London.[1][2] She was the daughter of the artist Lionel Smythe and Alice Gunyon, the second of three children.[3] Educated in France,[4] she was trained in painting by her father.[5] Smythe had her first exhibition in 1896 at the Royal Academy[6] while she was living at the family home of Chateau d'Honvault, near Wimereux in Pas-de-Calais, France.[7] In 1897, she had her first pupil as a painting teacher, the architect Sydney Vacher.[8] In 1901, she exhibited at the Society of Women Artists,[9] the same year she was made an Associate of the Royal Watercolour Society. In 1904, it was noted by the Fine Art Society in London that her production was sparing, and her subjects were mainly of figures and landscapes from the Pas-de-Calais region.[5] She also painted flowers[4] and received commissions for child portraits.[3] In 1905, her work A Cottage Girl was included in the book Women Painters of the World.[10] After the death of their father in 1918, Smythe moved with her brother from France to London.[3] She became a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1937,[1] where she exhibited 61 works. She also showed 21 paintings in total at the Royal Academy. Her last exhibition was in 1939.[7] Smythe died in 1955 in St. Pancras, London.[1][11]

The collection of the Royal Watercolour Society includes a work by Smythe entitled Gorse.[3] In 1997, one of her watercolours sold at Christie's for US$2,300.[12] She signed her works with an MS monogram,[13] or alternatively as M. Smythe and Minnie Smythe.[14][15]

Exhibitions

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A Cottage Girl, from Women Painters of the World, 1905.

Source:[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Mallalieu, H.L. (2002). The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 186. ISBN 1-85149-427-8.
  2. ^ "England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Hayles, Sally (2014). "Lionel Percy Smythe RA (1838–1918) and Alice Gunyon (1847–1916)" (PDF). Barnsley Art on Your Doorstep. pp. 90–93, 96–98. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 June 2024. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b Wood, Christopher (1995). Dictionary of British Art Volume IV: Victorian Painters. Vol. 1. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 488. ISBN 1-85149-171-6.
  5. ^ a b Huish, Marcus Bourne (1904). British water-colour art in the first year of the reign of King Edward the Seventh and during the century covered by the life of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours. Illustrated by the collection of drawings dedicated by that Society to Their Majesties the King and Queen at their coronation. The London Fine Art Society; Adam and Charles Black. p. 175. Retrieved 16 June 2016 – via Internet Archive.,
  6. ^ The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. London: William Clowes and Sons. 1896. p. 41. Retrieved 17 June 2024 – via HathiTrust.
  7. ^ a b c Johnson, J.; Greutzner, A., eds. (1976). The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club. p. 470. ISBN 0-902028-36-7.
  8. ^ Whitlaw, Rosa M.; Wyllie, W. L. (1923). Lionel P. Smythe, R.A., R.W.S.: His Life and Work. London: Selwyn & Blount. p. 171.
  9. ^ de Laperrière, Charles Baile, ed. (1996). The Society of Women Artists Exhibitors 1855–1996. Vol. 4. Calne, Wiltshire: Hilmarton Manor Press. p. 67. ISBN 0-904-722-295.
  10. ^ Sparrow, Walter Shaw, ed. (1905). Women Painters of the World: From the Time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-1463, to Rosa Bonheur and the Present Day. The Art and Life Library. Vol. 3. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024 – via Project Gutenberg.
  11. ^ "England & Wales, Death Index: 1984-2005". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  12. ^ "Spring Flowers, North France". Christie's. 1997. Archived from the original on 16 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  13. ^ Nahum, Peter (1976). Monograms of Victorian & Edwardian Artists. Calne, Wiltshire: Hillmarton Manor Press. p. 243. ISBN 0-950-5295-0-8.
  14. ^ "A Rose Border". Bonhams. 9 March 2004. Archived from the original on 17 June 2024. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
  15. ^ Dolman, Bernard, ed. (1962). Who's who in Art 1929 (11th ed.). London: Art Trade Press. p. 424 – via Google Books.
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