Sir Matthew Arnold Bracy Smith was a well-known artist.
| Biography |
Halifax-born painter.
He was the son of wire-manufacturer Frederick Smith.
He was educated at Heath Grammar School and Giggleswick. At the age of 13, his early art lessons with a Lightcliffe art teacher were unpromising.
He worked for a Bradford wool company, before going into the Manchester office of the family business.
He was a clerk to a wire manufacturer [1901].
In 1908, he went to the Manchester School of Art and then to the Slade School in London. He then went to an artists' colony in Pont Aven, Brittany, France where he was influenced by Henri Matisse. In 1911-1912, he exhibited at Salon des Indépendants in Paris.
In 1912, he married Gwen Salmond, whom he had met at the Slade.
Children:
The family lived at Grez-sur-Loing, France, where they met Delius.
They returned to England to live in Fitzroy Street, London. They moved between France and England.
He produced a large number of paintings of female nudes, flowers, fruit, and landscapes [1923-40], and he continued to produce still life and large decorative subjects despite ill health and failing eyesight.
He painted directly from the subject, beginning by drawing the composition in thin paint well-diluted with oil. This enabled him to wash out any problem areas. He would then add colour and work at great speed, completing the painting in 2 or 3 short sittings. He displayed a sumptuousness of vivid colour in which he had no modern British rival.
During World War I, he joined the Artists' Rifles and the Labour Corps, and helped to bury the German dead. Both his sons joined the RAF in World War II, and both were killed in the war.
In 1940, he was evacuated from France.
In 1949, he was awarded the CBE. In 1953, there was a retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery. In 1954, he was knighted. On 9th January 1954, an exhibition of his work opened at Bankfield Museum. In 1956, he received an Honorary D.Lit from London University.
He died in London on 29th September 1959
| His work |
His works include
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