| Administrative History | Matthew Smith was born in Halifax in 1879 and studied art first at the Manchester School of Art and from 1905 - 1907, at the Slade School. He later went to France and attended Matisse's school in Paris where he became acquainted with Fauvism and discovered the use of colour. He loved France and, after army service in the first world war, worked there much of the time although he also retained a studio in London. During 1920 and 1921 he painted in Cornwall. He showed work at the London Group exhibitions and became a member in 1920. In 1926 he held his first solo show at the Mayor Gallery. This exhibition established his reputation as an artist who integrated form and colour with warmth and richness. He settled in paris in 1929, but continued to visit England and travel in France. From 1929 he exhibited regularly at Arthur Tooth & Sons and also at the Reid and Lefevre Gallery. He took a studio in Aix-en-Provence in 1937. His work was exhibited at the Venice Biennales of 1938 and 1950. In 1940 he returned to London and was awarded a CBE in 1949, and a knighthood in 1954. The Tate held a retrospective in 1953, and after his death in 1959, the Royal Academy held a memorial in 1960. |