1910s Gilt Framed Oil Painting "Girl in the Meadow" by Emmet Owen Smith (Yir)

Up for sale from a recent estate in Honolulu Hawaii, this impressive Claude- Monet-like American pointillist style Oil on canvas painting depicting a young girl sitting in a meadow writing into a journal and was painted by the illusive artist Emmet Owen Smith (1886-1960s). The signature was easy to be overlooked and I put some filters over it to make it easier visible. There is also a old label on the back of the piece that shows very faint lettering that I could not decipher. I put it through photoshop and a couple more letters became visible but I still cannot see what it says. The conserver that worked on the piece said that the artist was trained and was very skilled but I seem to be not able to find any comparable pieces. If you have any idea please contact us - I spend a good deal of time looking around and would love to know more. The condition is described above for more information please check the photos.


Measurements:

Canvas 25 inches x 30 inches

Frame 37.5 inches x 42.5 inches


More about the artist:

EMMET OWEN SMITH
An American impressionist painter, he specialized in landscapes and portraits with particular concentration on New York subject matter.

Born in Smyrna, Tenessee in 1886 to William James Buchanan Smith ( a first cousin of James Buchanan) and Laura Gregory Smith, he attended high school in Nashville, Tennessee and studied standard art courses. After high school he studied for several years at the studio of the artist Gilbert Gaul, then a teacher at Vanderbilt College. Gaul is well known as an illustrator for Harpers Magazineand other magazines of the time and also a well-known Civil War painter.

Smith's father never wanted his son to be a painter because he felt that he would not be able to make a living. He preferred that he become a farmer and run the family plantation. But Emmet followed his heart and instead took a position with a lithograph company in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked creating illustrations for the publications of a Methodist publishing house.

While in Nashville, Smith met the Rochester, NY artist Carl M. Rasschen who worked at the time for Brandon Litho and Printing Co.

When he was about twenty, he moved to Denver, Colorado for health reasons. It was thought that the altitude would be beneficial to his health, and he worked creating posters for 7 or months.

He returned to Nashville in 1906, then on to Indianapolis, Cincinatti, and finally to New York City, where he rented a studio and worked for Pathe News for the next twelve years, making posters for celebrities such as Pearl White, Ruth Roland, Harold Lloyd, the Our Gang comedies, and other movies.

In the fall of 1928, Smith left Pathe and the next spring moved to France with savings of $12,000. He was a successful commercial artist, and his dream was to semi-retire in France. Though he stayed until 1936, the stock market crash of 1929 hurt him financially, and he returned to New York City, opening a studio in the Lincoln Arcade building at the corner of Broadway and 65th Street.

He spent his years in New York painting and restoring art for churches as well as the Seamans Bank, which houses the finest collection of marine pictures in New York City. He spent two years on a painting of the 4 Stations of the Cross for the Lutheran Church on 24th Street. He also painted many portraits. He remained in New York until about 1961 when he moved to the relative solitude of Vermont. Seamans Bank continued to work with him and sent special work to him in Vermont.

He painted well into his 80's, sharing his life with his wife Olive and their dog Rex.

Condition: 

The painting was lightly cleaned and varnished and is in conserved condition, the frame with scuff marks and some losses to the gilt in places but otherwise stable, the canvas was relined in the past