Lot 159: Mary Smith Oil Painting, Three Chicks at Nest

Mary Russell Smith (American, 1842 – 1878) oil on board painting depicting three fledgling chicks surrounding a nest with eggs in a forest floor setting. Signed and dated lower left in red “Mary Smith 1877” and housed in a modern gilt wood frame. Sight: 11 1/4 in. H x 9 1/2 in. W. Framed: 15 in. H x 13 1/4 in. W. Artist’s Biography: (Adapted from AskArt & Charleston Renaissance Gallery) – Mary Russell Smith is best remembered for her intimate genre scenes featuring chickens and barnyard life. She came from a prominent artistic family: her parents were Russell Smith and Mary Priscilla Wilson Smith, and her brother, Xanthus Smith, was also an artist. She was born at Rockhill, the family’s countryside home just north of Philadelphia, and later lived at their estate, Edgehill, in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, for the remainder of her life. Her artistic training began at home under her mother, an accomplished painter of flowers and still lifes. By the age of fourteen, Mary had already begun creating her own work. Her talent developed quickly, and she exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1859 and 1869, with additional showings in 1876 and 1878. Over the course of her brief career, she completed more than three hundred paintings, which she meticulously recorded in her personal ledger, Account of Work Done by Mary Smith, Artist (now held in the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution). In his 1867 publication Book of the Artists, Henry Tuckerman praised her work for its elegance, accuracy, and technical ability, particularly in her depictions of birds—her primary subject. At Edgehill, she kept and cared for the chickens she painted, working directly from observation. Her compositions often blend these subjects with elements of landscape or still life, as seen in works that pair chicks with floral arrangements, rendered with refined color and delicate attention to texture.

PROVENANCE: Collection of Patricia and Paul DeHaan, Kalamazoo, Michigan

CONDITION: Overall very light craquelure. Minor losses to the lower left corner near the signature area and some minor scattered abrasions to the left margin.