Morning at Grassy Hill CT., oil on canvas 20 by 28 inches (24 by 32 inches with frame), signed lower right
Henry Pember Smith was born in Waterford, Connecticut in 1854. As no record exists of his formal training, he is thought to have been self-taught. Little is known of Smith's life before he began exhibiting at the National Academy of Design in 1877. Throughout the last two decades of the nineteenth century, he also exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Club, the Boston Art Club, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was adept in both oil and watercolor.
The artist traveled extensively during the 1880's, particularly in Italy and the United Kingdom, in part to study old master paintings first-hand. He did paint some panoramic landscapes, particularly of the Connecticut River Valley, and sometimes dramatic marine works, but his favorite subjects were the canals of Venice and his "homestead," featuring cottage, trees and a duck-pond.
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