(ART.) Trunkload of artwork and family papers of noted painter Albert Alexander Smith. 13 items: 2 oil paintings, 1 lithograph, 5 family photographs, other ephemera, and one large shipping trunk; minimal wear to artwork. Various places, 1902-circa 1950s
Albert Alexander Smith (1896-1940) was raised in New York City, son of Bermudan immigrants. He was the first Black student at the National Academy of Design in 1915, served in World War One, and then returned to France in 1920 to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He remained there for much of the next 20 years, exhibiting frequently in New York. He was in Sallanches in the French Alps when he died of "congestion of the brain" in April 1940.
Smith was survived by his father Alfred Renforth Smith (1871-after 1950), a chauffeur who had served as his agent in New York. After Alexander's death, this trunk was shipped by Alfred to the Reverend Frederic Ricksford Meyers (1892-1980) of Detroit, a Columbia University graduate who had previously been rector of St. Luke's in New York. The trunk remained apparently unopened for about 70 years until it was sold at auction in 2023.
Offered here are:
THREE PIECES OF SMITH'S ART. Untitled oil on canvas, 17¾ x 12¾ inches, mounted on stretchers in period frame, unsigned; a street view of a man and woman.
Untitled oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches, mounted on stretchers in plain gilt frame, signed "Albert Smith /26"; depicts a disfigured man presenting a handful of coins.
Lithograph, 8 x 5 inches to sight, captioned in image "L'Eglise de St. Gilles, Caen, Albert Smith," signed Albert Smith in ink, numbered 2/50 in ink, and captioned in mat "Church, Caen, France"; laid down in period paper mat with Harmon Foundation exhibition label on verso.
FIVE PHOTOGRAPHS. Real Photo postcard, 5¼ x 3¼ inches; creased, worn, glue remnants on verso. Apparently shows Smith in his Army uniform, dated 1917 in manuscript but otherwise uncaptioned. The face is a match for his 1920 passport photo.
Photograph, 10 x 7¼ inches to sight, taped into mat; repaired tear, staining. Apparently depicts Smith; captioned in image "Megéve, Haute Savoie, Dec-Mars 1935," very near the town where he died in 1940.
Photograph, 6 x 7¾ inches, captioned "Central Park, January 1902, Curtiss Auto No. 32", mounted in frame; apparently shows Smith's father as a young chauffeur in the dawn of the automobile age.
Photograph, 7¼ x 12¼ inches, mounted in frame, with label reading "Hunting up north in Canada for moose, Winter 1903"; apparently shows Smith's father with friends?
Photograph, 4½ x 6½ inches to sight, in period frame, captioned "Lizzie and Alfred Smith, 50th Anniversary, 12/8/42," showing Alexander's parents dancing at a party.
OTHER EPHEMERA: Group of World War Two ration tickets issued to Alfred R. Smith for his 1936 Ford.
Steamer trunk tag reading "Rev. Ricksford Meyers, 2019 St. Antoine St., Detroit, from Paris, 151 W 131st St., NYC, val. 100.00." The address was then occupied by St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, where Meyers served as rector from 1940 to 1965.
And, finally, the actual trunk--if you wish to take possession of it: 12 inches high, 40½ x 23 inches across; bears initials of Smith's father "ARS" and fragments of several shipping and hotel labels including the Hotel Bristol in Vienna; battered and worn but quite sturdy, leather handles mostly perished, filled with circa 1954 New York and Detroit newspapers used as packing material.
Three of Smith's paintings from this trunk were sold in Swann's 3 October 2024 African American Art auction, with his World War One scene "My Bunk" hammering for $70,000. Additional Smith works from the trunk will be offered in Swann's 3 April African American Art auction.
References: Leininger-Miller, "New Negro Artists in Paris," pages 202-240; "St. Matthew's Episcopal Church" (history published circa 1970). Copies of both included.
