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European, Early American, and 20th-Century Art
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Frank Vining Smith Maritime Painting in the 20th Century
by James A. Craig
Introduction by Peter Williams ♦ Definitive exploration of the art and life of this prolific Massachusetts artist’s 70-year career ♦ Of interest to museums, universities, yacht clubs, yachting enthusiasts, and antique collectors ♦ Vining Smith’s work is in collections across the United States including in navy wardrooms, and he counted former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as one of his loyal patrons For Frank Vining Smith (1879–1967), the nineteenth-century clipper ship, like the cathedral of the Middle Ages, was one of man’s most glorious accomplishments. As Monet had done with the cathedral, Smith painted the ship, featuring it in different angles and at different times of the day. Having studied under the supervision of Frank W. Benson and Edmund Tarbell at the Museum School in Boston, Smith brought a new approach to the conservative art of marine painting. When looking at a painting by Smith, one does not see the blueprint of details that was common in ship painting at the turn of the century, instead one sees masses of shadows and the suggestion of details. Up close, it is difficult to see where one brushstroke ends and another begins, but seen from a distance, his compositions work perfectly, and is what contributor Peter Williams calls “the alchemy of Smith’s impressionism.” James A. Craig is a curator and lecturer specializing in nineteenth-century American marine art.
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