An oil on canvas industrial seascape showing a schooner docked in a tranquil New England harbor.
Signed lower left, 'Eugene L. Smyth' for Eugene Leslie Smyth (also spelled Eugene Leslie Smythe) (American, 1857-1932) and dated 1930.
Displayed in a period, hand-carved, gilt-wood frame.
Framed dimensions:
Painting dimensions:
Born in New York to David M. Symth, artist and inventor of the book-sewing machine, Eugene Leslie Smyth studied first studied under Frank Millet (1875). In 1876, he enrolled in Brown University (Kappa Epsilon) and completed his education before moving to Hartford and furthering his art studies under George Inness (1884-1885), R.U. Shurleff and D.W. Tryon (1885-1886).
Smyth exhibited widely and with success and was a member of the Boston Art Club (1884-1888; second prize, 1885; first prize, 1888), the Providence Art Club, the Brooklyn, New York Art Association (1883) and the A.E. Club. Between 1900-1905, Symth illustrated advertisements for magazines Santa Fe, Michigan Central, and Milwaukee, St. Paul. From 1905, he painted mostly privately, enjoying the company of artists including Winslow Homer, A.H. Wyant, Thomas Hill, J. Francis Murphy and Charles Davis. Between 1888-1926, Smyth made his home in Providence, working at Tilden-Thurber Co. (flatware and silver), while taking painting trips to California (1892, 1900), and maintaining a studio in Chicago. Near the end of his life, Smythe settled in Townshend, Vermont, which this painting dates to.
Eugene Leslie Smythe's work is held in the collections of the Santa Few Railway and the Smithsonian.
References:
Peter Falk, Who's Who in American Art, 1999; 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; Nancy Dustin Moure, "Publications in California Art No. 11, Index to California Art Exhibited at the Laguna Beach Art Association, 1918-1972; 2015 edition"; Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"; American Art Annual 1919-24; Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); et al.
Condition: Good
Painting: would benefit from a cleaning, pigment adhesion is stable; not examined outside of frame.
Frame: minor marks.
