Lewis E. Smith
Bedford Basin
1915
oil on canvas
26.8 x 37.8 cm
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Acquisition, 1927

On October 5, 1926, the Halifax Morning Chronicle published a eulogy to the late Lewis E. Smith saying, “Mr. Smith knew his own province and has painted it from end to end. The clouds, the colour, the light, the water, the great rocks, trees, boats, ships, buildings are so real that one is reminded again of the loveliness of Nova Scotia.” Lewis Smith was the younger brother of Edith Smith and received his first art training at the Victoria School of Art and Design. Smith was greatly influenced by the English academism of his first teacher, George Harvey, a style that later became modified by Impressionism and other influences. Lewis Smith worked for a time at the Grip Ltd. in Toronto, where he formed a lasting friendship with J.E.H. MacDonald.