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Smith James Burrell 1824-1897

A landscape painter in watercolour: illustrator and drawing master.

Smith was born in Middlesex, the son of an excise officer from Farmington near Morpeth. The family moved back to Northumberland when Smith was still a boy. At an early age he was placed as a pupil of Thomas Miles Richardson Snr. At 16 Smith was apprenticed to a painter and glazier in Morpeth but after 2 years moved to Alnwick to practice landscape painting.He remained in Alnwick for 11 years building up a considerable clientele for his works. His patrons while in Alnwick included the Duke of Northumberland, and the printer William Davison who issued many engravings of his work.

He exhibited at the Suffolk Street Gallery, the Carlisle Athenaeum, the North of England  Society for the promotion of Fine Arts and the Government School of Design.

In 1854 he moved to Dickenson of New Bond Street in London as an artist and drawing teacher. After leaving Dickenson in devoted his time to painting and teaching members of the nobilities children.

He is represented at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, the National Museum of Wales and the Laing Gallery.