Collect: American Art

Note
Mary Russell Smith was born the daughter of well-known Philadelphia landscape artist Russell Smith (1812–1896) and his wife floral artist Mary Priscilla Wilson Smith (1819–1874). Following in both her parent’s footsteps she began painting at a young age. Her favorite hobby and subject to paint was chickens, a theme she would become known for. She exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts on several occasions from 1859 to1878. She also exhibited two paintings at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1868, and another in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Suffering from chronic illness, Smith died young at the age of 36. Her brother, artist Xanthus Russell Smith (1839-1929), attributed his sister’s premature death to her dedication to her painting stating that “she was so wrapped in her profession that it would have been impossible to induce her to lay it aside.”