West Colorado Springs, exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1931, is a fine example of this period. Simple, unornamented one and two-story houses rise from an unpeopled landscape framed by western foothills and a translucent sky. It is a careful, mysterious work that transcends categories. Is it an actual Westside neighborhood? Yes, but one uncluttered and reduced to its essence. Was it done en plein aire, as were many of his paintings? Probably, given the accuracy of the mountain backdrop. Smith was honored by a one-man show at the Fine Arts Center in 1938 and by a memorial exhibition in 1957. His was a long, productive and often exuberant life, especially after 1913, when he married Edith Farnsworth, a widow with four young children. Slender and petite, Edith was a ferocious tennis player and an exceptional athlete. During a party the Smiths attended at El Pomar, host Julie Penrose bet Edith $100 that she could not pick up another guest, the 6’ 4” Butler Williamson and throw him into the Penrose Swimming Pool. That was lot of money at the time, given that Colorado Town, one of the paintings in this show, was priced at $100 when it was exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute in 1934. “Mrs. Smith accepted this challenge to femininity,” wrote Marshall Sprague in his 1983 history of the Cheyenne Mountain Country Club, “picked up Williamson and dumped him fully clothed (spats and all) into the Penrose pool. As he emerged dripping, Mrs. Penrose handed the triumphant Mrs. Smith $100.” Like so many other welloff emigrants from the East and Midwest, he came for his health, recovered and stayed for a lifetime. To learn more about the artist and to view his work, be sure to visit Francis Drexel Smith: A Legacy on Canvas at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum beginning on November 17, 2018. PARTNER SPOTLIGHT MUSELETTER NOVEMBER 2018 | PG 5
6 Publizr Home