George Henry Smillie
{{Short description|American painter (1840–1921)}}
{{redirect|George Smillie|American engraver|George Frederick Cumming Smillie}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name = George Henry Smillie
| image = George Henry Smillie portrait.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = December 29, 1840
| birth_place = New York City, New York, United States
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1921|11|10|1840|12|29}}
| death_place = Bronxville, Westchester County, New York, United States
| occupation = Painter, etcher
| spouse = Nellie Sheldon Jacobs (m. 1881–1921; his death)
| children = 3
| relatives = James David Smillie (brother)
}}
George Henry Smillie (December 29, 1840 – November 10, 1921)SMILLIE, George Henry in Who's Who in America (1901-02 edition); via archive.org{{Cite news |title=George Henry Smillie. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/11/11/109825185.html?pageNumber=11 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2025-01-05 |work=The New York Times |language=en |type=Obituary |via=The Times Machine |issn=0362-4331}} was an American painter and etcher.
Early life and education
George Henry Smillie was born on December 29, 1840, in New York, to parents Catherine (née Vans Valkenburgh) and Scottish-born artist James S. Smillie (1807–1885).{{Cite book |last=Avery |first=Kevin J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qNUzffcMZTMC&pg=PA343 |title=American Drawings and Watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art |last2= |first2= |date=2002 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |others=Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) |isbn=978-1-58839-060-8 |pages=343 |language=en}} He was the brother of artist James David Smillie (1833–1909).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Smillie, James David". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 254.
Smillie studied under his father, and under painter James McDougal Hart.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Career
He became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1882.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Like his brother, he painted both in oils and in watercolor. His favorite subjects were scenes along the New England coast. In 1871 Smillie travelled west to make landscape paintings and drawings, particularly of the Rocky Mountains and Yosemite Valley.{{Cite news |date=June 19, 2020 |title=George Henry Smillie Artist of Old Ridgefield |url=https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/George-Henry-Smillie-Artist-of-Old-Ridgefield-15347193.php |work=NewsTimes}}
In June 1881, he married painter Nellie Sheldon Jacobs (1854–1926), at All Souls' Church in New York City.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}{{Cite news |date=November 16, 1921 |title=Additional Deaths |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indiana-democrat-additional-deaths/162309784/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |work=The Indiana Democrat |pages=1 |type=Obituary |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1881-06-29 |title=An Artist's Marriage |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-times-an-artists-marri/162309994/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |work=The Philadelphia Times |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}} Together they had three sons.
He died on November 10, 1921, in his home in Bronxville, in Westchester County, New York. He was survived by his wife and children.
His work is in museum collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
File:River Landscape with Mountain View by George Henry Smillie.jpg|River Landscape with Mountain View
File:Tremezzo, Lake Como MET ap1970.234.2.jpg|Tremezzo, Lake Como (1898)
File:George Henry Smillie - Working on the Thames River - 78.40 - Indianapolis Museum of Art.jpg|Working on the Thames River (1884)
References
{{Reflist}}
{{1911|wstitle=Smillie, James David|volume=25|page=254}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline}}
- {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Henry Smillie}}
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Category:19th-century American painters
Category:19th-century American male artists
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:20th-century American male artists
Category:American landscape painters
Category:American male painters
Category:National Academy of Design members
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