Effie Anderson Smith (September 29, 1869 – April 21, 1955), also known as Mrs. A.Y. Smith, was an early

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

painter of desert landscapes, many of Cochise County and the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

Biography

Smith was born in the rural countryside near Nashville, Arkansas, in 1869.Mitre Press ''Principal Women of America'', p. 112 She grew up in Arkansas and served as a school teacher in

Hope, Arkansas Hope is a city in Hempstead County, Arkansas, Hempstead County in southwestern Arkansas, United States. Hope is the county seat of Hempstead County and the principal city of the Hope Hope micropolitan area, Micropolitan Statistical Area, which in ...

until 1893, when she left Arkansas for New Mexico, and then Arizona. She studied with California Impressionists in Oakland (1904),Crocker Art Museum ''Artists in California, 1786–1940'', p. 1033 with May Bradford Shockley in San Francisco (1908), in Laguna Beach with Anna Althea Hills (1914) and also at the Stickney Memorial Art School in Pasadena with Jean MannheimProgressive Arizona and the Great Southwest ''Mrs. A.Y. Smith, Arizona Artist'' November 1929, pp. 13, 33, 34 and Richard E. Miller (1915–16).University of Texas Press ''An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West'', p. 283 Her exhibitions include a show of her Southwest paintings in Corcoran Hall at

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Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

beginning May 20, 1931. She lived for 56 years in southern Arizona, first in Benson (1895–96), then in Pearce (from 1896 to 1941) and later in Douglas (from 1941 to 1951) in Cochise County, and seasonally in Morenci in Greenlee County at the home of her son Lewis A. Smith. Smith moved to

Prescott, Arizona Prescott ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. As of 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the city's population was 45,827. In 1864, Prescott was designated as the capital of the Arizona Territory, r ...

in 1951, and died there at the Arizona Pioneers' Home in 1955.Prescott Evening Courier "Death Claims Effie Smith", 22 April 1955 She was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Prescott. From January 11 to April 28, 2019, the Tucson Desert Art Museum presented a 150th birthday anniversary retrospective exhibit of E.A. Smith's landscapes with 46 of her canvases on display from her most prolific years (1926–1949), including four of her renowned Grand Canyon paintings. The largest permanent public display of E.A. Smith's paintings are on exhibit at the Douglas Historical Society, Douglas, Arizona.

Gallery

Image:Effie Anderson Newlyweds.jpg, E.A. Smith with husband Andrew Y. Smith, photographed in a San Francisco Railroad Studio Car photograph made around the time of their wedding (1895) Image:EA Smith behind the wheel circa 1900.jpg, E.A. Smith motoring near her desert home at Pearce, AZ in her Rambler Touring Car, circa 1907 Image:EA Smith Teaching.jpg, E.A. Smith with students in her Douglas, AZ studio (1940s)

References

* "Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture" www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net, Effie Anderson Smith (1869–1955) * "Mrs. A.Y. Smith, Arizona Artist" by Marian Compton, Progressive Arizona and the Great Southwest, Vol. 9, No. 5 (November 1929) * "Principal Women of America" (1932), Mitre Press, London. * "Arizona’s Forgotten Artist Mrs. A.Y. Smith" by O. Carroll Arnold, Cochise County Historical Journal, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Fall 1989) * "An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West" by P.& M.Y. Kovinick (1998), University of Texas Press, Austin. * "Artists in California, 1786–1940" by E.M. Hughes (2002), Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento. * "The Artists Bluebook" by L.P. Dunbier (2005), AskART Publishing * "Arizona's Pioneering Women Artists" by Betsy Fahlman & Lonnie Pierson Dunbar (2012), Museum of Northern Arizona. * "The Arkansas Gazette", Little Rock Arkansas, 5 July 1892, 28 Feb 1893, 28 May 1893, 28 June 1893 * "Prescott Evening Courier", Prescott Arizona, Obituary of 22 April 1955 * www.AskART.com * 1870 United States Census, Arkansas, Sevier County, Washington Township

External links

Effie Anderson Smith Museum and Archive

Effie Anderson Smith bio at Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture

E.A. Smith bio at Sharlot Hall Museum website

Tucson Desert Art Museum

Douglas Historical Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Effie Anderson 1869 births 1955 deaths Painters from Arizona People from Cochise County, Arizona People from Howard County, Arkansas 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters 20th-century American women painters Artists from Arkansas American Impressionist painters People from Prescott, Arizona People from Arizona Territory