TitleA Bit of Brook with Some Sheep
Artist
James David Smillie
(American, 1833 - 1909)
Date1891-1892
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 24 × 20 in.
Framed: 29 5/8 × 25 7/16 × 2 in.
SignedSigned at lower left: "JDSmillie" (JDS in monogram).
SubmissionNA diploma exchange presentation, 1892
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1174-P
Label TextJames D. Smillie, the eldest of James David Smillie's four sons, started training as an engraver under his father at early age. James had the advantage of a college education at the University of the City of New York (today New York University). He continued working with his father into the 1860s to execute vignettes for the American Bank-Note Company. (Although he gave up direct engraving of banknote designs in the company with design drawings through most of his career, as they afforded a reliable source of income.) In 1864 James decided he wanted to be a painter, in part probably due to influence of his younger brother George, who had set up as a painter two years earlier. The two were always close, sharing living quarters until their respective marriages in 1881 and keeping a studio jointly for thirty years.
Throughout his career Smillie derived subject matter from summer excursions to the usual artists' haunts in the Northeast, among them the Adirondack Mountains in New York State, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and the coasts of Massachusetts and Maine.
On February 12, 1877. the Council accepted an untitled work by Smillie and confirmed his election as an Academician; it was stipulated that he was to "replace it with a better picyure within six months." There is no subquent reference in minutes to Smillie's diploma contribution, Council action (hence no record) would have been required to make an exchange. Smillie's diaries of 1892 indicate that his 1877 presentation was a sketch entitled Sierra, and that he honored his commitment to its replacement-even if not as promptly as promissed. It can be assumed, then, that the present painting is the one he exchanged for Sierra.
