Arthur Smith
(1916-1991)
British artist Arthur Smith was one of the leading scientific illustrators of the 20th century. He was also highly prolific, producing during his lifetime nearly 20,000 illustrations of insects as well as illustrating 56 periodical articles and several books. He was born at Eastburn in Yorkshire, England, and as a boy became interested in natural history. At 15 years of age he won a scholarship to the Keighly School of Arts and Crafts and later went on to study at the Royal College of Art, London. Smith was based at the British Museum (Natural History) from 1940 to 1973. Most of his artwork consists of detailed scientific line drawings. He developed a technique of using a combination of watercolor, colored inks and coloured pencil to produce his drawings. His natural history work included vertebrates, minerals and precious stones.
Smith produced 16 very competent and attractive color-plate illustrations of mineral specimens for Semi-Precious Stones (1952), written by Nora Wooster of the Brooklyn Crystallographic Laboratory at Cambridge University, England. In the acknowledgments Smith and Wooster thank the following people for access to mineral specimens that were illustrated: Dr. Campbell Smith, Keeper of Minerals at the British Museum (Natural History); Dr. J. Phemister of the Geological Survey and Museum, London; and Prof. C. E. Tilley of the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Cambridge University. Mr. C. H. Benson of the Museum of Practical Geology, and Miss J. M. Sweet of the British Museum (Natural History) are thanked "for help given in the drawing of the plates."
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Number of artworks found: 8 | Artworks being viewed: 1 to 8
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Smoky Quartz from St. Gotthard, Switzerland
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the Geological Survey Museum, London. Published as Plate 4 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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Amethyst from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the Geological Survey Museum, London. Published as Plate 7 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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Fluorite from Derbyshire, England
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the British Museum (Natural History), London. Published as Plate 15 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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Azurite from the Copper Queen mine, Bisbee, Arizona
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the British Museum (Natural History), London. Published as Plate 11 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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![The Mineralogical Record: Arthur Smith - Pyrite [probably from Huanzala, Peru]](artmuseum/thumbnails/smith-5-s.jpg) |
Pyrite [probably from Huanzala, Peru]
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the Geological Survey Museum, London. Published as Plate 12 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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Malachite from the Park Downs mine, Queensland, Australia
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the Geological Survey Museum, London. Published as Plate 10 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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Fluorite from the Ullcoats mine, Cumberland, England
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the British Museum (Natural History), London. Published as Plate 14 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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Fluorite with Quartz and Chalcopyrite
Watercolor/ink/pencil drawing on art paoer, 4.5 x 7 inches (1952); drawn from a specimen in the British Museum (Natural History), London. Published as Plate 1 in Nora Wooster's Semi-Precious Stones. |
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