.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A native of New York, James David Smillie was originally an engraver, studying under his father until a visit to Europe in 1864 cultivated his interest in oil and watercolor painting. Smillie founded the American Watercolor Society in 1866 and served as its president from 1877 to 1909. His works were exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Brooklyn Art Association, Brooklyn, New York, and the National Academy of Design, New York.
Smillie's pastoral subject matter was inspired by trips to the Sierras, the Adirondacks, and the Rocky, White and Catskill Mountains. The Pond's Outlet illustrates the artist's fascination with natural detail and the effects of soft light, creating a poetic image of nature representative of the later artists of the Hudson River School. According to the artist's notes the present work, painted for the National Academy of Design's Fifty-Ninth Spring Exhibition, depicts a view of northern Pennsylvania, early in the afternoon on a September day.
Paintings and watercolors by the artist are currently in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, the Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the New York Public Library, New York.
Smillie's pastoral subject matter was inspired by trips to the Sierras, the Adirondacks, and the Rocky, White and Catskill Mountains. The Pond's Outlet illustrates the artist's fascination with natural detail and the effects of soft light, creating a poetic image of nature representative of the later artists of the Hudson River School. According to the artist's notes the present work, painted for the National Academy of Design's Fifty-Ninth Spring Exhibition, depicts a view of northern Pennsylvania, early in the afternoon on a September day.
Paintings and watercolors by the artist are currently in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, the Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the New York Public Library, New York.