# Mary Smith Prize

The Mary Smith Prize (defunct) was a prestigious art prize awarded to women artists by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It recognized the best work by a Philadelphia woman artist at PAFA's annual exhibition — one that showed "the most originality of subject, beauty of design and drawing, and finesse of color and skill of execution". The prize was founded in 1879 by Russell Smith in memory of his deceased daughter, artist Mary Russell Smith. It was awarded from 1879 to 1968.

## Prize

In the nineteenth century, women artists were rarely awarded major prizes. They were mostly limited to prizes designated for them. But rare exceptions included: Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, who won the 1889 Temple Gold Medal at PAFA; Mary Hazelton, who won the 1896 Hallgarten Prize at the National Academy of Design; and Cecilia Beaux, who won the 1899 Carnegie Prize at the Carnegie Museum of Art and the 1900 Temple Gold Medal at PAFA.
Initially, the Mary Smith Prize carried a cash prize of $100, which was increased to $300 in 1960. Cecilia Beaux had won this prize four times before she was awarded the Temple Gold Medal.
Other 19th-century prizes for women artists were the Dodge Prize at the National Academy of Design and the Shaw Prize at the Society of American Artists.

## Mary Russell Smith

Mary Russell Smith was the daughter of landscape and theatrical scenery painter William Thompson Russell Smith (Russell Smith) (1812–96) and amateur artist Mary Priscilla Wilson Smith (1819–74). Both of her parents exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Mary and her brother, Xanthus Russell Smith, both developed an interest in painting. Xanthus attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Mary exhibited her paintings of rabbits, chicks, and other animals there 1859 to 1869, and again between 1876 and 1878.
Russell Smith established the Mary Smith Prize following her death. Mary Russell Smith had designated that upon her death the proceeds of the sale of her paintings should be used to fund the prize, to be awarded to women artists.

## Recipients

| Year | Artist | Work | Collection | Notes |
| 1879 | Susan Macdowell Eakins | Portrait of a Gentleman and Dog | Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Virginia | Portrait of the artist's father. |
| 1880 | Catherine A. Janvier | Old-Fashioned Music (The Guitar Player) | Private collection | |
| 1881 | Emily Sartain | Marie | | |
| 1882 | Mary K. Trotter | May | | |
| 1883 | Emily Sartain | Metelill | | |
| 1884 | Lucy D. Holme | Petrona | | |
| 1885 | Cecilia Beaux | Les Derniers Jours d'Enfance (The Last Days of Infancy) | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | Portrait of the artist's sister, Etta Beaux Drinker, and nephew Henry. Exhibited: 1887 Paris Salon |
| 1886 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1887 | Cecilia Beaux | A Little Girl (Fanny Travis Cochran) | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1888 | Elizabeth F. Bonsall | Paying the Model | | |
| 1889 | Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts | Die Flucht (The Flight) | | |
| 1890 | Alice Barber Stephens | Portrait of a Boy | | |
| 1891 | Cecilia Beaux | Portrait (pastel) | | |
| 1892 | Cecilia Beaux | Portrait | | |
| 1893 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1894 | Maria L. Kirk | Portrait | | |
| 1895 | Gabrielle D. Clements | Granite Cutting at Cape Ann | | |
| 1896 | Elizabeth H. Watson | Portrait of Reverend Dr. Watson | | |
| 1897 | Elizabeth F. Bonsall | Hot Milk | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1898 | Caroline Peart | Once upon a Time | Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College | |
| 1899 | Carol H. Beck | Study | | Following the artist's death in 1908, the Carol H. Beck Gold Medal was founded in her memory. |
| 1900 | Mary F. R. Clay | Portrait of Irene K. | | Honorable mention: Janet Wheeler |
| 1901 | Janet Wheeler | Portrait of Mrs. Louise Starr | | |
| 1902 | Elinor Earle | Fire Light | | |
| 1903 | Jessie Willcox Smith | A Mother's Days (set of 8 watercolor illustrations) | | Published in Scribner's Monthly Magazine, December 1902. |
| 1904 | Lillian M. Genth | Peasant Houses | | |
| 1905 | Elizabeth Shippen Green | set of 12 watercolor illustrations for "The Thousand Quilt" (short story) | | Annie Hamilton Donnell, "The Thousand Quilt," Harper's Monthly Magazine, December 1904. |
| 1906 | Alice Mumford Roberts | Two Vaudeville Stars | | |
| 1907 | Mary Smyth Perkins | Cows | | |
| 1908 | Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones | Roller Skates | | |
| 1909 | Martha Walter | Portrait | | |
| 1910 | Alice Mumford Roberts | The Morning Air | | |
| 1911 | Alice Kent Stoddard | Portrait of Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1912 | Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones | In the Spring | | |
| 1913 | Alice Kent Stoddard | Little Girl Cutting Dolls | | |
| 1914 | Nina B. Ward | Elizabeth | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts | |
| 1915 | Gertrude A. Lambert | Carpet Rags | | |
| 1916 | Nancy M. Ferguson | In Provincetown | | |
| 1917 | Elizabeth F. Washington | Winter | | |
| 1918 | Helen K. McCarthy | Farms in Hill Country | | |
| 1919 | Juliet White Gross | On the Hill | | |
| 1920 | Mildred B. Miller | In the Window | | |
| 1921 | Katherine Patton | Deep in the Woods | | |
| 1922 | Mary Townsend Mason | Still Life with Fruit | | |
| 1923 | Isabel Branson Cartwright | Portrait: H.B.S. | | |
| 1924 | Lillian B. Meeser | The Green Bottle | | |
| 1925 | Mary Butler | Flood Tide | | |
| 1926 | Wenonah Bell | Still Life | | |
| 1927 | Pearl Aiman Van Sciver | New Hope | | |
| 1928 | Laura D. S. Ladd | Still Life and Dahlias | | |
| 1929 | Edith McMurtrie | Harpooning Horse Mackerel | | |
| 1930 | Grace Gemberling | Rocks and Flowers | | |
| 1931 | Mildred B. Miller | Yuanshi Kuo | | |
| 1932 | Virginia Armitage McCall | Waldron Academy, Overbrook | | |
| 1933 | Catherine Morris Wright | After Lunch | | |
| 1934 | Elizabeth F. Washington | The Bend in the Creek | | |
| 1935 | Margaretta S. Hinchman | Portrait of a Nun | | |
| 1936 | Alice T. Roberts | T'Ang Horses | | |
| 1937 | Henriette Wyeth | Peter Hurd | El Paso Museum of Art | |
| 1938 | Irene Denney | The "5 and 10" | | |
| 1939 | Mary Townsend Mason | Flowers | | |
| 1940 | Frances Cowan | Wetzel's Kitchen | | |
| 1941 | Sarah Blakeslee | Along the River | | |
| 1942 | Faye Swengel | Bucks County Farmer | | |
| 1943 | Margaretta S. Hinchman | I Know the Lord Laid His Hand on Me | | |
| 1944 | Doris Kunzie Weidner | Holliday's Mill | | |
| 1945 | Catherine Grant | Captain Charlie and the Hawk's Nest | | |
| 1946 | Doris Kunzie Weidner | Deserted Farm | | |
| 1947 | Agnes Allen | Portrait of J. Somers Smith | The State in Schuylkill, Philadelphia | |
| 1948 | Violet Oakley | Christ and the Woman of Samaria | First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |
| 1949 | Catherine Grant | The Villa Marie | | |
| 1950 | Marie-Celeste Fadden | French Child on Train | | |
| 1951 | Rita Wolpe Barnett | To the Earth | | |
| 1952 | Alice T. Roberts | Ipswich Sand Dunes, No. 2 | | |
| 1953 | Elsie Manville | Yellow Hat | | |
| 1954 | Dora Bortin | Russian Tea Service | | |
| 1955 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1956 | No prize awarded | | | |
| 1957 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1958 | Jane Sperry Eisenstat | Dead Opossum | | |
| 1959 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1960 | Cecilia Finberg | Landscape | | |
| 1961 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1962 | Elizabeth C. Osborne | Girl Sleeping | | |
| 1963 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1964 | Virginia Armitage McCall | Dahlia: Still Life | | |
| 1965 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1966 | Mitzi Melnicoff | Children's Hour | | |
| 1967 | No exhibition | | | |
| 1968 | Edna Andrade | Space Frame D | | Last Mary Smith Prize awarded |