Evening star., 1950-06-11
News Of Art and Artists
American Artists Paintings of Ancient Eypton Monuments
In Unusual Exhibition Sponsored by Embassy
By Florence S. Berrymon

BY Florence ). berNmon
Egypt has stirred imaginations
and has commanded enduring in
terest for centuries, although only
a very small group Of any people
at q given time has had first hand
contact with 50 much as an
original Egyptian sculpture. This
situation inspired the career Of an
American artist. Joseph Lindon
Smith. an exhibition Of whose
paintings Of ancient Egyptian
monuments has just opened In the
foyer Of the Natural History
building. National Museum. to re-
main through June %. 1t is under
the patronage Of H. Z. the Am
bassador Of Egypt. Mohamed Ka-
mil Abdul Rahim Bey.
More than 50 large paintings
reproduce with q startling illusion
of reality, basreliefs. free-standing
sculpture and wall paintings. in
their recent and present condi-
tions of time-eroded surfaces. Not
a few of DR.. Smiths paintings
tempt the touch. so closely do
they resemble the stone and wood
of the originals.
Born in Pawtucket, r. I. 1859 :.
educated at Massachusetts, 1nsti-
tute Of Technology. the School of
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts,
and subsequently the Academic
Julien. Paris. DR.. Smith returned,
to Boston in 1884 to begin a career
as portrait and landscape painter.
He had developed an unusual
technique Of painting dry" in
watercolor (using the paint as 1t
came from the tubes) which so
impressed Professor Denman Ross
of Harvard that he took the young
artist as his guest companion on
a several-years tour. They studied
ancient art in Greece and Italy.
as we'll as old masters. and Smith
became interested in making
replicas of the great art of the
past, being particularly concerned
with those masterpieces which
cannot be transported from their
original sites.
For 66 years DR.. Smith has been
travelling and painting in Asia,
Africa. Europe and Central Amer
lea. When asked once why he
gave up his career as a successful
portrait painter. he pointed to a
statue of Ramses the Great and
replied:
"This is the sort of sitter like:
he is always on time. he never
wriggles. and he has no relatives. P"
DR.. Smith first visited Egypt in
1898. was persuaded to go to Abou-
Sinbel to paint archaeological
subjects. His first purchaser of
such pictures was Mrs. Phoebe
Hearst, widow of the silver" king.
Through her he met DR.. George
Reisner who headed a joint expe-
dition of the Boston Museum and
Harvard University, at the pyra-
mids of Giza. DR.. Smith was affil-
lated with this subject from 1910
to 1899.
For many years he has served
as honorary curator of Egyptian
art at the Boston Museum, has
taught at its school and at Har-
ward University, and in 1947 and
1913. at the request of the govern
ment of Egypt. instructed selected
Egyptian painters in his technique.
His work has been widely exhibit
ed, and groups as we'll as single
examples are in permanent collec-
tions of many important museums
in the United States and abroad,
including the Corcoran Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution and Car
negie Institute here. I.
In 1947, 1948 and 1949 exhibi-
tionS of DR.. Smiths Egyptian
paintings were held in the hall of
the Cairo Museum. alongside the
original treasures of ancient Egyp-
tian sculpture, a tribute to the
paintings quality. Still another
honor was the award by the Uni
versity of New Hampshire, of the
honorary degree of doctor of hu-
name letters. for his ''interna-
tional renown in the fields Of
painting and archaeology" His
permanent home is in Dublin, N. H.