Lawrence Beall Smith

American (1909-1995)

Born in Washington D.C. in 1909, painter, sculptor, lithographer and illustrator Lawrence Beall Smith studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the University of Chicago, as well as under Harold Zimmerman, Charles Hopkinson and Ernest Thurn in Boston and Gloucester. Smith began exhibiting in 1935 and gained a strong national reputation by 1941 when a one-man exhibition of his art was launched at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. During World War II, Smith created posters for the war effort and was an artist for the D-Day landings in Normandy. Following the war, he founded Katonah Gallery in New York and exhibited there for many years, as well as at the National Academy of Design, Art Institute of Chicago, Whitney Museum of American Art and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

From 1940-1970, Smith was regularly commissioned by the Associated American Artists of New York for his lithographic artworks featuring children. He also illustrated a number of books such as Robin Hood, Tom Jones, The Black Arrow and The Caine Mutiny. Smith’s works are held in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fogg Art Museum, University of Chicago, Harvard University, Navy Art Collection and Library of Congress in Washington D.C.