George Cotton Smith

1908

Robert Henri

Painter, American, 1865 - 1929

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Robert Henri painted pendant portraits of George Cotton Smith and his wife, Elizabeth Virginia Laning Bradner Smith, at their home in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in January 1908, shortly before completing the full-length portrait of their neighbor Edith Reynolds. The artist was eager to complete the portraits so that he could return to New York and prepare for the exhibition of The Eight scheduled to open at the Macbeth Gallery on February 3.

Smith was a prosperous businessman who established a large wholesale paper company in Chicago, Illinois, in 1852. In 1860 he entered banking and founded the firm George C. Smith & Brother. He married Bradner in 1868. At the time Henri painted these portraits, Smith had retired to his wife’s native city of Wilkes-Barre.

The Smith portraits are outstanding examples from Henri’s strongest period and illustrate his maxims on portraiture. The vigorous brushwork creates a sense of instantaneousness and casual informality that reflects the influence of the 17th-century Dutch portraitist Frans Hals, an artist whom Henri admired.

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: George Cotton Smith, 1908

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Commissioned by the sitter's daughter, Amanda Mary Smith Adams [1877-1952], Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania;[1] by inheritance to her son, Dr. George C.S. Adams [1911-1981], Spartanburg, South Carolina; by inheritance to his widow, Adaline Holaday Adams [d. 2003], Spartanburg; gift 1986 to NGA.
[1] Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.: Robert Henri diary, 1870-1954, Reel 886, contains the entries relating to the Smith commissions. The NGA portrait of Mr. Smith was described by the artist in his ledger as "Property of Miss Amanda M. Smith Wilkes Barre." See also several letters, Robert Henri to Amanda M. Smith, of 29 June 1907, 25 December 1907, and 1 January 1908, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 200, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left: Robert Henri; across top reverse: Portrait of / Mr. George Cotton Smith / by Robert Henri / at Wilkes Barre. Pa. / Jan 1908 / E 171

Wikidata ID

Q20191168

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