Thomas Stuart Smith

Thomas Stuart Smith
1874 portrait by Alfred Wilson Cox
Born	1815 Scotland
Died	1869 Avignon
Nationality	British
Known for	philanthropy

Thomas Stuart Smith was a painter and philanthropist known for creating what is now called Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery.

Life

Smith was born in 1815 the secret illegitimate nephew of Alexander Smith who had the estate at Glassingall. Alexander's brother had sent Thomas to a school in France whilst he made business in Canada and the East Indies. Thomas had to return to England when his father's money failed to arrive to the shock of Alexander Smith and his family.^[1]

Thomas Stuart Smith became interested in painting from an Italian master painter who he met whilst working as a traveling tutor to a British family. His uncle supplied funding so that he could travel and paint in Italy starting in 1840. By the end of that decade he was having his work accepted by both the Salon des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London. His first painting at the Royal Academy was bought by Professor Owen who was an acquaintance of Edwin Landseer who was said to have admired it repeatedly.^[1]

Inheritance

The Pipe of Freedom

In 1849 Alexander Smith died intestate and it was not until 1857 that Thomas took possession of the family's estate as he vied at great expense with eighteen other aspirants. During the eight years that he had waited in hope of his inheritance he taught art at the Nottingham School of Design. James Orrock, the collecter and watercoulourist, was one of his pupils and he commented on how Smith could paint anything. Smith was known to the Brabazon School of realistic painting including the animal painters Constant Troyon and John Phillip RA.^[1]

Having gained the estate he kept it just six years before he left again for London funded by the sale of the estate. At this point he was not as rich as he might have expected due to the legal costs. However his new fortune enabled him to create an art collection at a studio in Fitzroy Square that included his own work. He decided to create an Institute in Stirling to house his new collection. He drew up plans for a library, museum and a reading room and he offered £5,000 to the council if they could donate a site within two years. He signed the trust into existence in November 1869 with himself, James Barty, the Provost of Stirling and A.W.Cox, a fellow artist as trustees. He was prevented however from seeing his plans fulfilled as he died the next month in Avignon.^[1]

Legacy

Smith is known primarily for founding the Smith Institute which is now called the Stirling Smith Museum and Art Gallery. Smith also has hundreds of paintings in public ownership.^[2]

Two of Smith's paintings that are still thought to be important are portraits he created of black men. Unlike other depictions at the time where black people were included as servants, Smith's portraits Fellah of Kinneh and Pipe of Freedom show his subjects as independent and free and they were created to celebrate the abolition of slavery in America.^[3] He also created a smaller painting called "The Cuban Cigarette" which has a similar presence.^[1] The Pipe of Freedom shows a mac lighting a pipe and behind him a slave sale notice has been partially covered by an abolition notice.^[3]

References