Lionel Percy Smythe

1839-1918

British (London, England; Wimereux, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France)

Smythe was educated partly at King's College School and partly in France. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1863 (and became a full member in 1911) and the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours from 1881 (member, 1880), though he transferred his loyalty to the Royal Watercolour Society in 1892 (member, 1894). Smythe, his wife and three children settled at Wimereux, France, in 1879, in a Napoleonic fortification, until this was destroyed by coastal erosion, after which they moved in 1882 to the more inland Château d'Honvault between Wimereux and Boulogne. The surrounding countryside and rural life remained his inspiration to his death.