Portrait of James Smillie

 

James David Smillie

  1833 - 1909 (biography)

1901  

etching and aquatint, printed chine colle 

6 7/8 x 5" platemark 

artist's monogram within image, lower right 

proof, from an unstated edition 

dated and annotated in the plate, lower right: "aqua-fortis, Ap. 1901"; annotated within plate, upper right: "Quebec 1825"; pencil, lowert right margin: "Touched." 

W95 

light ivory china paper mounted on heavy antique white wove 

artist's proof before trimming of the plate 

unpublished 

BC009 

SOLD

A portrait of the artist's father, James (1807-1885), who was himself a self-taught engraver and silversmith who would eventually train his son. According to Witthoft: "On April 9, 1901, Millie took a miniature portrait out of his father's scrapbook, "In Memoriam," a collection of drawings, prints, and memorabilia keyed to his father's unpublished autobiography, "A Pilgrimage". ...The portrait [after Edward Heaton], in watercolor, dates to James Smillie's [senior] early days. The family had emigrated from Scotland to Quebec in 1821. Smillie is shown at the age of 18, when he first began to work as a largely self-taught engraver."