The Art of Frank Vining Smith
Saturday, June 26, 2010 to Sunday, October 31, 2010
Smith (1879-1967), who was called “the ultimate in marine painting,” was born in Whitman and summered on Cape Cod as a child. Unable to pursue his childhood hope of becoming a sailor because of poor vision, he turned to his second love, painting, as a way to make a career. Trained at the Museum School in Boston (as well as other art schools), some of the best known painters at the end of the nineteenth century were his teachers including Frank W. Benson, Philip L. Hale and Edmund C. Tarbell. After leaving school he worked in various capacities as an artist for newspapers and advertising firms. Eventually, he made a break from this other work, settled in Hingham, and devoted himself to the work for which he is remembered best today, marine painting.
In 1921, Smith had his first solo exhibition at the prominent Boston gallery Doll & Richards. It featured all marine scenes and was acclaimed by critics as “splendid.” His paintings of ships, particularly wind-driven clipper ships, came to be known across the country in the coming years. As his reputation grew, he began exhibiting in other large cities such as Chicago and San Francisco, and museums began to collect his work as well. His intimate knowledge of ships and how they move through the water, acquired through years of first-hand observation, was acknowledged by art critics, and perhaps more importantly, by sailors themselves, who are notoriously merciless critics of those who choose to paint ships. Eventually he garnered commissions from many leading corporations, prestigious yacht clubs, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and even officers of the United States Navy who asked him to paint murals on several warships.
By the late 1940s, Smith’s reputation as one of America’s finest painters was well in hand. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Josiah Kirby Lilly, Jr. Smith and Lilly shared a deep love of Cape Cod and both were concerned that it would soon be changed forever by development. Together they began work on a project to document the Cape they knew and loved. What began as a commission from Lilly for Smith to paint four Cape scenes, eventually became a series of twenty paintings documenting the Cape from the canal to Wellfleet, as well as the islands of Martha’s Vineyard, Cuttyhunk and Naushon.
Frank Vining Smith enjoyed in his day the critical and monetary success most artists never attain. His work was exhibited coast to coast in the country’s most prestigious galleries and collected nationwide. Today the works of this great Massachusetts artist are again drawing attention and Heritage is proud to present the work of an artist who sailed our waters.
The first major book examining the life and work of Smith will be published to coincide with the opening of the exhibit. Frank Vining Smith: Maritime Painting in the 20th Century by James A. Craig will be available for sale in the museum store.
On the Road to China, Frank Vining Smith, 1931, oil on canvas, gift of Louise I. Doyle.