Dorothy Carleton Smyth

Dorothy Carleton Smyth (1880 – 16 February 1933) was a Scottish artist, a compatriot of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, active in theatrical and costuming design, and one of the leading lights at the Glasgow School of Art during the post WWI period. Her association with the Arts & Crafts Movement in England and Scotland, together with her work in fine book-binding, illustration, and faculty leadership at the GSA, place her at the hub of the Golden Age of Illustration. Named, in 1933, as GSA's first female director—by a unanimous vote of the School's governing board—her tragic early death by brain hemorrhage in that same year deprived Scotland of an accomplished, active and internationally respected proponent of Scottish art.

Early life and family Smyth was born in Cambuslang near Glasgow in 1880 to Elizabeth Ramage and a jute manufacturer, William Hugh Smyth; her parents originated from France and Ireland, respectively. Although the family moved to Manchester in the 1880s, Smyth returned to Glasgow to study, as did her sister, Olive (1882–1949), who also became an artist . thumb The Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1899), cover art by Dorothy C. Smyth, front cover The Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1899), cover art by Dorothy C. Smyth, back cover

Education: The Arts & Crafts Movement The Glasgow School of Art, where Smyth studied and later taught. Between 1885 and 1893 Smyth attended the Colonel Clark's School in Manchester and the Manchester High School for Girls. She studied under Walter Crane at the Manchester School of Art between 1893 and 1897.

The Arts and Crafts Movement was additionally an advocate for developing a sense of place; it is therefore not surprising that, following these first years of training, Smyth,, chose, at the age of 18, to return to Scotland and her early home, to continue her studies at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA).

By the time she had begun her study at Glasgow (1898), Smyth's interest had become focused on theatre and costume design, "her fascination with exotic clothes" leading her to active participation in the many student-produced plays and masques within the school.

Career Smyth's work, with its elegant, art nouveau aesthetic, stood out from her student days. Her stained glass window Tristan and Iseult was selected for exhibition at the Glasgow International Exhibition (1901), even before she had received her diploma. Following her graduation from GSA (1902), an anonymous female patron paid for her membership in the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists and financed her travel to Florence, Paris, and Switzerland to "study the European masters". In 1903, she was commissioned by Craibe Angus to exhibit in Turin, Cork, Toronto and Budapest.

Legacy Smyth lived with her sisters for much of her life. Olive Smyth was also at GSA during this period, teaching fashion.

In 1921, aged 41, she painted Self Portrait. This piece shows her in her studio with brushes, canvas and paint palette, and smiling at the onlooker. Olive Carleton Smyth presented the painting to Glasgow Museums in 1948.