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Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Procession by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith

Artwork by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith, Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Procession

F.M. Bell-Smith
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Procession

oil on board
signed and dated 1897 lower right; inscribed “Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Procession passing the National Gallery, London, June 22nd, 1897” on the reverse
6 x 9 ins ( 15.2 x 22.9 cms ) ( sight )

Auction Estimate: $7,000.00$5,000.00 - $7,000.00

Price Realized $4,400.00
Sale date: November 22nd 2021

Provenance:
Private Collection, Toronto
Literature:
Roger Boulet, “Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (1846-1923)”, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, 1977, pages 80-81 for similar compositions
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee took place on June 22nd, 1897, marking the 60th anniversary of her inheritance of the British throne. A seventeen-carriage convoy carried Queen Victoria, the royal family and leaders of Britain’s dominions from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul’s Cathedral for the six-mile procession. F.M. Bell-Smith has captured this important historical event with vigour, depicting London as a sea of colour. Soldiers in black form a human fence along the edge of the procession, dotted with bright red figures, with Union Jacks suspended from every corner and rainbows of bunting draped overhead. The poetic charm and energy of the composition is evident.

Bell-Smith was employed as a freelance illustrator by various publications, including the “Canadian Illustrated News”. The artist was commissioned to visit London for the Jubilee celebrations. He made notes on the passing pageantry and took photographs as a frame of reference during the actual execution of the final paintings. Bell-Smith applied his academic training and traditional artistic style in the various works of this significant event that he produced and included a watercolour in the Nineteenth Exhibition of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1898.

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Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith
(1846 - 1923) OSA RCA

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Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (1846-1923) was born in London, England and died in Toronto, Ontario. His earliest training was under his artist father. He attended the South Kensington School of Art under Alexander Hamilton until his family emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1867. Later, he studied in Paris at the Academie Colarossi under Joseph-Paul Blanc, Gustave Courtois, and Edmond-Louis Dupain. The artist arrived in London, Ontario in 1881 where he was appointed Art Director of Alma College (St.Thomas) and, the following year, Drawing Master at Central Public School. In 1888 he moved to Toronto where he was named principal of the western branch of the Toronto Art School. He continued to serve at Alma College until 1901. Bell-Smith was a founding member of the Society of Canadian Artists, the Ontario Society of Artists, and the Western Art League. He was elected an Academician in the Royal Canadian Academy and played important roles in many local and national artistic associations. His work was very popular in his lifetime: he painted portrait, genre, and landscape subjects in both oil and watercolour in the impressionistic, picturesque, and sublime styles of the last century. Bell-Smith also won many international honors in his career.