SMITH, Arthur Reginald

1871 - 1934

Arthur Reginald Smith was born at Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire in 1871, only child of William Smith, a druggist & grocer, and his wife Hannah née Smith, who married at Skipton in 1871. In 1881, Arthur was a 9-year-old, living at 63 Keighley Road, Skipton with his parents, 36-year-old William and 34-year-old Hannah. Arthur studied art at evening classes at Keighley School of Art later working at the school as a tutor and in 1901 became a student at the Royal College of Art in London being awarded the full diploma from the painting school in 1904. In 1905 awarded a scholarship which allowed him to travel to Italy, where he studied for a year and on his return, Augustus Spencer (1860-1924), the College Principal, found him teaching positions at schools in London and he supplemented this work by running art classes at Leighton House where he held an exhibition of his Italian views in 1907-1908 and at the Dudley Gallery in 1910. Arthur married at Christ Church, Bolton Abbey, Skipton on 9 August 1897, Alice Anne Wright, daughter of Joseph Wright. In 1911, Arthur was a 39-year-old art teacher, living at 67 Bertram Road, Hendon, London with his 43-year-old wife Alice and their three children, Mary Margaret 12, Henry Allan 10, both born at Keighley, Yorkshire, and Eleanor Barbara 2, born at Hendon. During the First World War Arthur served in the Artists Rifles, and after the war returned to Yorkshire, settling at Fairfield, Grassington, where he lived for the rest of his life. The Wharfedale Group emerged through his relationships with other artists including Reginald Brundrit (1880-1960), Frank Ellis Horne (1863-1932), Cutcliffe Hyne (1866-1944) and Arthur Halliwell Sutcliffe (1870-1932). A landscape painter exhibiting work at the Royal Academy and at the Royal College of Art, South Kensington in 1906 'San Domenica, Sienna: evening' and 'Sienna, Italy: early morning' also showing at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, being elected a member in 1926, and at the Royal Watercolour Society, being elected a member in 1925. He exhibited over 400 works at the Fine Art Society, having a solo show at the Society in 1914. He also exhibited a watercolour at the Ipswich Fine Art Club in 1923,'The Deserted Gorge' and in 1932 from Farfield, Grassington, North Yorkshire, a watercolour 'Haytimes in the Dales'. Commissions included work for private apartments at Marlborough House and at Buckingham Palace also painting a portrait of Lord Lawrence, Viceroy of India. He illustrated Halliwell Sutcliffe’s 'The Striding Dales' (1929) and a reprint edition of William Gershom Collingwood’s 'The Lake Counties' (1932). Arthur Reginald Smith went missing near the Strid on the River Wharfe, at Bolton Abbey on the 14 September 1934 and his body was found eleven days later by a local water diviner, who pointed to a pool fifty yards downstream from where the artist’s easel and painting bag were found, and the police dragged the spot and found the artist’s body. His ashes were later scattered in the river he loved to paint. Examples of his work are in the Government Art Collection and 70 of his works were sold at Bonhams in Leeds in 2003, the proceeds going to Giggleswick School. Bradford Museums and Galleries and the Craven Museum at Skipton hold examples of his work.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 25 Studdridge Road, Fulham
1902 985 Norfolk Woodland
1904 685 Bamboro' Castle, Northumberland
         1066 Cloth Fair, Smithfield - watercolour
from the Royal College of Art, South Kensington
1906 1015 San Domenico, Siena: Evening - watercolour
         1020 Siena, Italy: Early morning - watercolour
from 3 Belsize Studios, Hampstead, Northwest London
1915 1120 Early morning: Cahors - watercolour
1916 1010 The Head of the Gorge - watercolour
         1401 Upland stillness - watercolour

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Works by This Artist