Lot 153: ALICE RAVENEL HUGER SMITH WATERCOLOR

Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (1876-1958) Original "Blue Heron" Watercolor. Heron at the waters edge. Signed by the artist lower right. Image 55.6x22.8 cm. In Frame under glass measures 16"x29"x 1". Weight 5 pds. The watercolor has been professionally conserved in 2017 in Charleston. PROVENANCE: A Sullivans Island SC Private Estate. A native and lifelong resident of Charleston SC, Smith was born in Charleston SC on July 14, 1876, the daughter of Daniel Elliott Huger Smith and Caroline Ravenel. Smith is best remembered for her scenic views of Charleston streets and poetic marsh vistas in which she captures the mystical aura of the Carolina Lowcountry. From 1924 on, she painted almost exclusively in watercolor, finding that medium most conducive to achieving the atmospheric effects she sought in her landscapes. Along with her friends Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, Alfred Hutty, and Anna Heyward Taylor, Smith was at the center of the Charleston Renaissance, Charleston's artistic reawakening during the early twentieth century. She was an active contributor to the city’s cultural development and a founding member of the Charleston Etcher’s Club and the Southern States Art League. She was also involved in the Historic Charleston Foundation, Carolina Art Association, and Music and Poetry Society. Smith exhibited widely through the South, but also in the Midwest and the Northeast, gaining a national reputation. Her work can be found in many notable permanent collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, High Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, among others.

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