William Smith

Education

Here, between 1828 and 1831, he studied art under the portraitist James Lambdin, a former pupil of Thomas Sully.

Career

Smith also served as curator of Lambdin"s Pittsburgh Museum, where he met many of the city"s scientists and intellectuals. At the beginning of his career, Smith found considerable success in painting commercial signs and backgrounds for theatrical productions. In 1835, he moved to Philadelphia in order to paint decorations for the Walnut Street Theater.

During this time that he began to write poetry and produced smaller-scale landscape paintings that were inspired by his theatrical scenery.

These works were displayed in public exhibitions, including the Artists" Fund Society and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he regularly contributed to the annual exhibitions until 1889. In 1858, he was honored with a commission by the Philadelphia Academy of Music to paint their scenery.

Smith traveled throughout Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New England to observe nature and drawing sketches for later works, showing extraordinary talent in painting atmosphere, water, and other elements of nature.

Works

• Other Work

  • Collections Russell Smith's works are held in the collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Berkshire Museum, Butler Institute of American Art, Carnegie Institute, Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Delaware Art Museum, Morris Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Sewell C. Biggs Museum of American Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Westmoreland Museum of American Art.