William A. Smith

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Smith began studying art at the early age of 12. By the age of 13, he had already begun a career as an illustrator for the “San Francisco Chronicle”. Often drawing from his own diverse experiences and travels, he studied at both the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris. As a way to learn more about Chinese art, history and language, he "consented to be recruited" for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and was sent to China during World War II. Soon after, he began to travel and sketch in other far away lands such as India, Egypt, Africa, and countries throughout Europe. Smith was also one of the first artists to be sent to Russia under the Cultural Exchange Agreement in 1958. Though best known for his magazine illustrations in “Holiday”, the “Saturday Evening Post” and “Cosmopolitan”, he has illustrated many books such as those by close friends Pearl S. Buck and Carl Sandburg. He has also designed numerous U.S. postage stamps.

EXTENDED BIO

William Arthur Smith (April 19, 1918 - April 27, 1989[1] ) was an American artist. Smith was born in Toledo, Ohio. He studied at the Theodore Keane School of Art in Toledo from 1932 to 1936 and at the University of Toledo from 1936 to 1937, receiving an honorary master of arts degree in 1954. He married Mary France Nixon in 1939, with whom he had one son, Richard Keane. Smith's second marriage in 1949 to Ferol Yvonne Stratton produced two girls, Kim and Kathlin Alexandra. After working a year for newspapers, Smith moved to New York City in 1937 and established his first studio there. He was an instructor at the Grand Central School of Art (1942–43) before joining the Office of Strategic Services in China in 1944 and 1945. He lectured abroad at the Academy of Fine Arts, Athens (1954); the University of Santo Tomas, Manila (1955); and the Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw (1958). In 1954 he was an official delegate to the International Association of Plastic Arts in Venice, and in 1958 he became a member and official delegate to the Soviet Union under a cultural exchange agreement. Smith's work is represented in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Toledo Museum of Art (1942 and 1952), at Bucknell University (1952) and in foreign cities in the 1960s and 1970s. He executed an historical mural for the State of Maryland in 1968; illustrated United States postage stamps on historical subjects; authored a book about the sculptor Gerd Utescher; and produced illustrations for American magazines. From 1968 to 1973 he served a vice president on the board of director's of Pearl Buck's Welcome House.

REFERENCES

William A. Smith Papers: An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University

Michener Museum

National Portrait Gallery