The Wave (1892-94), oil on canvas, 71.1 x 127 cm., gift of the artist to the City of London, 1896 In the Luxembourg Gardens (1896), watercolour on paper, 35.9 x 52.7 cm., gift of the Estate of Mrs. A.M. Cleghorn, London, 1967 The Yoho Valley, British Columbia (n.d.), watercolour on paper, 36.8 x 53.3 cm., The W. Thomson Smith Memorial Collection {Bequest of Alfred J. Mitchell}, 1948 Return from School [a.k.a. The Daughters of Canada] (1884), oil on canvas, 91.4 x 153.7 cm., presented to the City of London by Mrs. Annie W.G. Cooper in loving memory of her husband, Albert Edward Cooper, 1940 Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith (1846-1923) was born in London, England and died in Toronto, Ontario. His earliest training was under his artist father. Then he attended the South Kensington School of Art under Alexander Hamilton until his family emigrated to Montreal, Quebec in 1867. Later, he studied in Paris at the Academie Colarossi under Joseph-Paul Blanc, Gustave Courtois and Edmond-Louis Dupain. The artist arrived in London, Ontario in 1881 where he was appointed Art Director of Alma College (St.Thomas) and, the following year, Drawing Master at Central Public School. In 1888, he moved to Toronto where he was named principal of the western branch of the Toronto Art School. He continued to serve at Alma College until 1901. Bell-Smith was a founding member of the Society of Canadian Artists, the Ontario Society of Artists and the Western Art League. He was elected an Academician in the Royal Canadian Academy and played important roles in many local and national artistic associations. His work was very popular in his lifetime: he painted portrait, genre and landscape subjects in both oil and watercolour in the impressionistic, picturesque and sublime styles of the last century. Bell-Smith also won many international honors in his career and had the distinction of being the first artist represented in our permanent collection with his painting, The Wave.