Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith

Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith
Born	(1846-09-26)September 26, 1846 London,England
Died	June 23, 1923(1923-06-23)(aged 76) Toronto,Ontario,Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Known for	landscape painter
Spouse	Annie Myra Dyde (m. 1871)

Frederic Marlett Bell-SmithRCA(also known asF. M. Bell-Smith) (September 26, 1846 – June 23, 1923) was aCanadianlandscape painterknown for his works of theRocky Mountainsand theSelkirk Range,QuebecandMaine.

Career

Bell-Smith emigrated toBritish North Americafrom England in 1866. He had studied painting in England at theSouth Kensington School of Artand worked as an artist and photographer inMontreal,where he helped his father, John Bell-Smith, "a painter of miniature portraits of considerable talent,"to found the Society of Canadian Artists in 1867. In 1871, he moved toHamilton, Ontarioand married Anne Myra Dyde. In 1874 he moved toToronto,then in 1879 returned to Hamilton.

Throughout the 1870s and 1880s he sketched, painted, and taught art classes inLondon, Ontario(1881–1888); in St. Thomas, Ontario as Art Director of Alma College (1881–1890) and then as director of the Toronto Art School in 1889.He returned to study in Paris at theAcadémie Colarossiin 1896.

Painting the Rocky Mountains

Bell-Smith paintingLake Louise(named forPrincess Louise), c. 1908

In 1886 Bell-Smith seized the opportunity to paint the Canadian Rockies when the Vice-President of theCanadian Pacific Railway(CPR),William Cornelius Van Horne,offered free travel passes to several artists who would sketch and paint vistas of the Canadian west. The CPR wanted artistic works that would heighten public interest in transcontinental travel. Bell-Smith’s stylistically conservative paintings were popular in both eastern Canada and Britain, and he frequently returned to the west to work. He was particularly fond of the natural splendour of the area aroundLake Louiseand by the turn of the century he made annual trips to the west.

These experiences led Bell-Smith to advocate for a Canadian school of art which drew its uniqueness from the use of the Canadian landscape as its subject matter. Later artists, includingTom Thomson,Emily Carr,and theGroup of Seven,contributed to this focus on Canada’s natural environment in art.

Lights of a City Street

Bell-Smith also created many paintings of late Victorian and Edwardian eastern Canada and Britain. One of his most famous and playful paintings isLights of a City Street,which portrays the intersection of Yonge and King Streets in Toronto in 1894. Bell-Smith depicted himself in the painting as the man buying a newspaper, his son is the man raising his hat, and the policeman is Bill Redford, the constable actually stationed at the corner.

Painting Queen Victoria

The Artist PaintingQueen Victoria,1895

In connection with a series of paintings related to the death of Prime Minister SirJohn Thompsonin 1894, Bell-Smith managed to negotiate a sitting withQueen Victoria,who normally disliked having her portrait taken by anyone aside from a few select portraitists. According to Bell-Smith, he followed the advice of a Canadian senator to approach Lord Clinton andHafiz Abdul Karimabout a sitting with the Queen, but, received discouraging replies from both men. Bell-Smith was able to obtain sittings with Princesses Beatrice andLouise,the latter being married tothe Duke of Argyll,who was a formerGovernor General of Canadaand an advocate of Bell-Smith. The Princesses used their influence to persuade the Queen to sit for Bell-Smith. The cordial sitting lasted for over an hour, during which Queen Victoria permitted Bell-Smith to position her as he wished; Princess Louise, an artist herself, offered Bell-Smith advice. The Queen also spoke (mostly in German) to her daughters and other attendants about her grandchildren. At the end of the sitting, the Queen approved Bell-Smith’s work. This anecdotal episode demonstrated Bell-Smith’s influence and popularity in Britain. Indeed, Bell-Smith contemplated moving to Britain in the 1890s. However, he decided to divide his time between Canada and Europe,continuing to paint until his death, becoming less active towards the end of his life.

Honours

He was a founding member of theRoyal Canadian Academy of Artsin 1880.He also belonged to the Society of Canadian Artists (1867) which he helped found; a founder member of theOntario Society of Artists(1872), of which he was president (1905-1908); the Royal British Colonial Society of Artists (1908); the Palette Club, Montreal (1892); and the New Water Colour Society, Toronto (1900).In 1908 he was a founding member of theArts and Letters Club of Toronto.

Gallery

• 
  Three Artists,c. 1883
• 
  London Bridge
• 
  Westminster Bridge,ca. 1897
• 
  Mists and Glaciers of theSelkirks,1911

Record sale prices

At theCowley Abbott Auctionof An Important Private Collection of Canadian Art, December 6, 2023, lot 102, Bell-Smith'sSchool’s Out(1885), watercolour and gouache, 23 x 38 ins ( 58.4 x 96.5 cms ), Auction Estimate: $15,000.00 - $20,000.00, realized a price of $66,000.00.

Bibliography

• Beinart, William; Hughes, Lotte (2007).Environment and Empire.The Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Boulet, Roger (1977).Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (1846-1923).Victoria: Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
• Boulet, Roger (21 May 2008)."Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith".The Canadian Encyclopedia.Retrieved10 January2024.
• Boyanoski, Christine (2015). "Figures in the landscape en plein air". In Thom, Ian M. (ed.).Embracing Canada: Landscapes from Krieghoff to the Group of Seven.Vancouver and London: Vancouver Art Gallery and Black Dog Publishing. pp. 59ff.
• Bradfield, Helen (1970).Art Gallery of Ontario: The Canadian Collection.Toronto: McGraw-Hill.
• McBurney, Margaret (2007).The Great Adventure: 100 Years at The Arts & Letters Club.Toronto: The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto.ISBN9780969458821.
• Newman, Paul (1992).Canada - 1892: Portrait of a Promised Land.Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.

External links

• Ungar, Molly Pulver; Bach, Vicky (2005)."Bell-Smith, Frederic Marlett".In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (eds.).Dictionary of Canadian Biography.Vol. XV (1921–1930) (online ed.).University of Toronto Press.
• HBC Corporate Collections: ArtatHudson's Bay Company