Joseph Lindon Smith, American (1863-1950)

Joseph Lindon Smith was born in Pawtucket, R.I. and attended Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from 1880-1882 and the Académie Julian under Gustave Boulanger, Jules Lefebvre, and William-Adolphe Bougereau from 1883-1885. Denman Ross of Harvard University saw Smith’s works at his Boston studio and soon the two were traveling extensively to study the ancient civilizations of Mexico, China and Southeast Asia. During a trip to Venice in 1892, Smith met collector Isabella Stewart Gardner and began a life-long friendship with her, during which he copied paintings for her and acted as an agent in purchasing art for her collection.

Smith’s passion, however, was creating painted copies of tomb reliefs in Egypt and of other ancient archeological sites. He became a member of the Joint Expedition of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard University from 1910-1939, headed by George A. Reisner. Smith was often among the first to enter a newly discovered tomb and knew most of the major archaeological figures of the day, including Lord George Carnarvon, Howard Carter, Gaston Maspero, and Theodore M. Davis. From those days before color photography, Smith’s paintings are the best surviving documentation of newly exposed, fragile antiquities, whose colors did not long survive exposure to light and air. Smith became the honorary curator of the Egyptian department of the Boston Museum, and he taught there as well as at Harvard. He also created murals for educational use in museums and other institutions.

In 1931 he was appointed President of the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He was also a member of the Society of Mural Painters, the Copley Society of Boston, and a founding member of the art colony in Dublin, NH.