Two girls in an interior winding a skein of wool

Carlton Alfred Smith, one of the most technically accomplished Victorian watercolourists, established his reputation painting genre and cottage interiors. With Charles Edward Wilson (fl. 1890-1930), with whom he shared models and a studio in London, he moved to join the artistic community founded by Myles Birket Foster (1825-1899) and Helen Allingham (1848-1926) in the villages surrounding Witley in Surrey. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists and the New Watercolour Society.