Anita Miller Smith
Encyclopedia
Anita M. Smith was an impressionist and regionalist
painter
most closely associated with Woodstock, New York
. In the 1930s Smith became an herbalist
, and her venture, Stonecrop Gardens, was one of only five enterprises of like size in the Northeast, serving clients in every one of the 48 contiguous states. During this phase of her career, she authored and published As True as the Barnacle Tree, a short herbal
based on ancient and contemporary practices. In the 1950s she wrote the town of Woodstock's first history, Woodstock History and Hearsay.
in 1682. Knight, a Quaker and former English landowner, established a farm in the Byberry region of Pennsylvania
. One of Knight's descendants, Henry Cavalier Smith, an attorney-at-law
, married Lucy Pancoast Miller. The couple assumed control of Wyndlawn, the Smith country estate in Torresdale, Pennsylvania. This was where Anita M. Smith was born on October 20, 1893, the youngest of five children.
In 1910 Smith and her mother embarked on a tour of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Smith also took instruction at the Académie Julian
in Paris, the art studios of Ferruccio Scattola in Venice, the atelier Forcello in Cairo, and the British Academy in Rome. Each day was divided between morning art instruction and afternoon tours of such museums as the Louvre
in Paris, the Palace of the Doges in Venice, and ancient cathedrals including St. Sophia's in Constantinople.
, using money intended for a ball gown, and enrolled in the Art Students League
summer program. That fall she returned to Philadelphia to take lessons from William Merritt Chase
. In an interview with the Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker, she described how her deepening commitment to art forced her to move away from Philadelphia. Later on in the article, she said she that she believed it "necessary to dig into the history of the countryside" and that she "didn't see how one could paint the Catskills without knowing something of the people who lived among them, thus reflecting a literary approach to art." In 1913 she commenced studies under John F. Carlson at the Arts Students League in Woodstock.
Smith painted in an impressionist and a post-impressionist manner. She worked in oil, watercolor and graphic media. Primarily a landscape artist, she painted landscapes in a variety of area including New Hope, Pennsylvania
, Provincetown, Massachusetts
; Charleston, South Carolina
, New York
, Taxco de Alarcon, Mexico and Paris
, France.
From 1916 to 1928 Smith's works were exhibited nationally at such venues as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
, the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, the Art Gallery of Toronto
, the Woodstock Artists Association, the National Academy of Design
, the Art Institute of Chicago
and the Louisville Art Association. In 1919 her painting Houses in the Dunes won a Lambert Purchase Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy—along with the work of such fellow artists as Paulette Van Roekens
and Lilian Westcott Hale.
prompted her to leave painting. She wrote that people with a sense of color are supposed to have a keen sense of taste and, since many of the artists were excellent cooks, she and her associates tried to share tasty dishes with one another. To accomplish this, she found it necessary to grow a few herbs for culinary purposes. She was also an enthusiastic gardener and she found that her hobby changed to a vocation as her herb gardens began to turn a profit. This was during a time when popular interest in herbs soared across the country.
In 1934 Smith built a bluestone
cottage near the Rock City Corners at the base of Overlook Mountain, about a mile from the center of Woodstock. By 1937 a greenhouse was added, and a short time later she had over 150 herbs under cultivation, with commercial clients that included H.J. Heinz. During this period, Smith's As True as the Barnacle Tree was cited in a New York Herald Tribune article, and its writer dubbed her the "The Herb Lady of the Catskills."
After the war, Dr. James T. Shotwell
, a neighbor and friend, asked Smith to compile a service database; the record was to include all Woodstockers who fought for their country during the Second World War. This formed a key chapter in her soon-to-be-published book, Woodstock History and Hearsay—the town's first official chronicle. Smith based her narrative on detailed scholarship as well as a wide-ranging collection of local folk stories gathered from Catskill mountain families and resident artists. The story's arc begins with Native American times and concludes with chapters on the art colony, leading up to the Woodstock Festival
of 1969. Smith also wrote The Landscape of History and The Quest of Abel Knight: The Quakers and Shakers. Due to a resurgence of public interest in Smith's paintings, her works were exhibited at the USArtists Show in 2003 and 2005. In 2006, publisher WoodstockArts released a second edition of Woodstock History and Hearsay.
Regionalism (art)
Regionalism is an American realist modern art movement that was popular during the 1930s. The artistic focus was from artists who shunned city life, and rapidly developing technological advances, to create scenes of rural life...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
most closely associated with Woodstock, New York
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
. In the 1930s Smith became an herbalist
Herbalist
An herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
, and her venture, Stonecrop Gardens, was one of only five enterprises of like size in the Northeast, serving clients in every one of the 48 contiguous states. During this phase of her career, she authored and published As True as the Barnacle Tree, a short herbal
Herbal
AThe use of a or an depends on whether or not herbal is pronounced with a silent h. herbal is "a collection of descriptions of plants put together for medicinal purposes." Expressed more elaborately — it is a book containing the names and descriptions of plants, usually with information on their...
based on ancient and contemporary practices. In the 1950s she wrote the town of Woodstock's first history, Woodstock History and Hearsay.
Upbringing
Smith's paternal ancestor, Giles Knight, arrived in the American colonies aboard The Welcome with William PennWilliam Penn
William Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
in 1682. Knight, a Quaker and former English landowner, established a farm in the Byberry region of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. One of Knight's descendants, Henry Cavalier Smith, an attorney-at-law
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, married Lucy Pancoast Miller. The couple assumed control of Wyndlawn, the Smith country estate in Torresdale, Pennsylvania. This was where Anita M. Smith was born on October 20, 1893, the youngest of five children.
In 1910 Smith and her mother embarked on a tour of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Smith also took instruction at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
in Paris, the art studios of Ferruccio Scattola in Venice, the atelier Forcello in Cairo, and the British Academy in Rome. Each day was divided between morning art instruction and afternoon tours of such museums as the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
in Paris, the Palace of the Doges in Venice, and ancient cathedrals including St. Sophia's in Constantinople.
Career as an artist
In 1912 Smith ventured up to the art colony at Woodstock, New YorkWoodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
, using money intended for a ball gown, and enrolled in the Art Students League
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
summer program. That fall she returned to Philadelphia to take lessons from William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
. In an interview with the Poughkeepsie Sunday New Yorker, she described how her deepening commitment to art forced her to move away from Philadelphia. Later on in the article, she said she that she believed it "necessary to dig into the history of the countryside" and that she "didn't see how one could paint the Catskills without knowing something of the people who lived among them, thus reflecting a literary approach to art." In 1913 she commenced studies under John F. Carlson at the Arts Students League in Woodstock.
Smith painted in an impressionist and a post-impressionist manner. She worked in oil, watercolor and graphic media. Primarily a landscape artist, she painted landscapes in a variety of area including New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, formerly known as Coryell's Ferry, is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 2,528 at the 2010 census. The borough lies on the west bank of the Delaware River at its confluence with Aquetong Creek. A two-lane bridge carries automobile and foot traffic across the...
, Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...
; Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Taxco de Alarcon, Mexico and Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France.
From 1916 to 1928 Smith's works were exhibited nationally at such venues as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
, the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, the Art Gallery of Toronto
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
, the Woodstock Artists Association, the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
, the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
and the Louisville Art Association. In 1919 her painting Houses in the Dunes won a Lambert Purchase Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy—along with the work of such fellow artists as Paulette Van Roekens
Paulette Van Roekens
The American artist Paulette Van Roekens was born in Château-Thierry, France late New Year's Eve 1895. Something of a prodigy, she was awarded the John Sartain Fellowship at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women...
and Lilian Westcott Hale.
Career as a herbalist
In the 1930s Miss Smith embarked on a second career as an herbalist after the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
prompted her to leave painting. She wrote that people with a sense of color are supposed to have a keen sense of taste and, since many of the artists were excellent cooks, she and her associates tried to share tasty dishes with one another. To accomplish this, she found it necessary to grow a few herbs for culinary purposes. She was also an enthusiastic gardener and she found that her hobby changed to a vocation as her herb gardens began to turn a profit. This was during a time when popular interest in herbs soared across the country.
In 1934 Smith built a bluestone
Bluestone
Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...
cottage near the Rock City Corners at the base of Overlook Mountain, about a mile from the center of Woodstock. By 1937 a greenhouse was added, and a short time later she had over 150 herbs under cultivation, with commercial clients that included H.J. Heinz. During this period, Smith's As True as the Barnacle Tree was cited in a New York Herald Tribune article, and its writer dubbed her the "The Herb Lady of the Catskills."
After the war, Dr. James T. Shotwell
James T. Shotwell
James Thomson Shotwell was a Canada-born American history professor. He played an instrumental role in the creation of the International Labor Organization in 1919, as well as for his influence in promoting inclusion of a declaration of human rights in the UN Charter.Born in Strathroy, Ontario, he...
, a neighbor and friend, asked Smith to compile a service database; the record was to include all Woodstockers who fought for their country during the Second World War. This formed a key chapter in her soon-to-be-published book, Woodstock History and Hearsay—the town's first official chronicle. Smith based her narrative on detailed scholarship as well as a wide-ranging collection of local folk stories gathered from Catskill mountain families and resident artists. The story's arc begins with Native American times and concludes with chapters on the art colony, leading up to the Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Festival
Woodstock Music & Art Fair was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskills near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969...
of 1969. Smith also wrote The Landscape of History and The Quest of Abel Knight: The Quakers and Shakers. Due to a resurgence of public interest in Smith's paintings, her works were exhibited at the USArtists Show in 2003 and 2005. In 2006, publisher WoodstockArts released a second edition of Woodstock History and Hearsay.
External links
- AskArt http://www.askart.com
- National Association of Women Artists http://www.nawanet.org
- Pennsylvania Art Conservatory http://www.paconservatory.com
- WoodstockArts http://www.woodstockarts.com
- Woodstock Artists Association and Museum http://www.woodstockart.org