In 1907, the “Boston Sun” published an article about hanging a drop curtain painted by Russell Smith in 1872. The curtain was a replica of an earlier version painted in 1856-1857. The article noted, “In the painting of the curtain Mr. Smith was assisted by his daughter who executed the drapery effects, which were her specialty.”
Russell Smith, his wife and two children all painted. Smith married Mary Priscilla Wilson, in 1838; she was a talented artist in her own right. Two were born to the couple, a boy and a girl. Xanthus Russell was born in 1839, and his sister Mary in 1842. Russell encouraged his children’s interests in art. This is not unusual as many artists who have children are eager to share the joy of sharing their trade and the fulfillment of art. Russell even traveled to Europe with the entire family to experience historically significant and artistic landmarks together from 1851 to 1852.
Of their talents, Xanthus was recorded as specializing in landscape and marine subjects, while Mary was recognized for her paintings of animals. It is not unusual that the children also helped their father with his theatre projects, hence Mary specializing in painting draperies for drop curtains. The two certainly worked together on many projects. In 1876, both Russell and his daughter exhibited their artworks independently at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Her early passing only two years later had a profound effect on Smith and he continued to talk about his daughter until the end of his life.
In 1894, Russell Smith spoke of his career in an interview with “The Times” of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (20 May 1894, page 16). The interview was two years before his death, and Smith’s recollections convey the profound sense of loss for not only a child, but also a kindred spirit; a fellow artist’s flame who was snuffed out much too early. Even the illustration of Smith accompanying the article conveys exhaustion, an emptiness that has worn down his features.
Here is what the article noted about Smith’s daughter:
“Naturally, the sweetest memories of the veteran painter linger about his dead daughter, Mary. Both of his children, Mary and Xanthus, naturally inherited the talent of their parents, for Russell Smith’s wife was also a water-colorist of ability. His son, Xanthus, who lives at the castle with his father, served during the was under Admiral Dupont, and his knowledge of the war has been repeatedly utilized in illustration work.
“Mary Smith, who died seventeen years ago, was best known as a successful painter of animals, and during her short life painted not less than 300 pictures. The old scene painter touches tenderly a little book of drawings made by Mary when traveling in Europe with her parents. At that time she was only 9 years old. Among the drawings are representations of a gaily-dressed lady at a piano, a procession of Swiss peasants entering a church, Welsh women in blue coats driving pigs to market.
“Like all tender-hearted women, Mary Smith loved flowers and animals. She delighted in her garden and raised large families of poultry. Chickens she loved especially and at all seasons of the year had a basket of chicks hanging on her easel.
In the parlor of the castle hangs a portrait of a gallant rooster, about which the artist tells this story: ‘Not content with the days labor Mary would rig up a large lamp on winter nights and make careful life sized studies from an old hen or lordly rooster. It required no little perseverance or determined will with occasionally a rap with a maulstick to make them even tolerable sitters, but the result was always a successful interpretation of chicken character. On one occasion when the sitter was shown his portrait he at once made a determined assault upon I t and the study still shows the gashes about the head made with his pugnacious bill.’
“It was Mary Smith’s desire that at her death a portion of her earnings should be invested in such a manner as to yield an annual income of $100, this to be awarded by each years’ exhibition committee of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for the best picture in oil or watercolors painted and exhibited by a resident woman artist in Philadelphia. The Mary Smith prize has regularly been awarded since 1879, and among the women who have received the honor are Cecilia Beaux, Alice Barber Stephens. Emily Sartain and Lucy D. Holme.”
Mary may be the first publicly recognized female scenic artist in America, and her specialty was draperies.
To be continued…
