A member of a respected family of engravers and painters, George Henry Smillie was a landscape painter whose work displayed many of the hallmarks of the Hudson River School. His paintings were marked by a brightness of color and technical proficiency that made him very popular in his day.
Smillie was born in New York City in 1840. His father, James Smillie, was a well-known line engraver and as a boy George studied under him. George also studied painting with James McDougal Hart, an important landscape painter of the period. Two older brothers, James Jr., and William, also became artists and engravers.
In 1871, Smillie made a trip to the Rocky Mountains and the Yosemite Valley of California, to sketch and paint. He used the material he gathered for years afterward in his oils and watercolors. Most of his paintings were mountain landscapes, but some also included the Indians then native to the two regions. Smillie also painted in Florida and throughout New England, but for most of his life he lived and worked in the New York City area.
In 1881, he married Nellie Jacobs, a genre painter who had been a student of his brother James, and for many years the three shared a studio in suburban Bronxville. In 1884, Smillie and his wife made an extended tour of Europe.
George Smillie's paintings became favorites with collectors; his work was purchased by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Lotus Club of New York, the Union League Club of Philadelphia and by many other museums and private collections.
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