An American Artist and Designer
Frank Hill Smith was an American painter and interior designer based in Boston, Massachusetts. His artistic practice was diverse, spanning the creation of landscapes and figures to the design of wall frescoes, stained-glass windows, stage curtains, and various forms of décor. His notable works include the ceiling frescoes in the Representatives Hall of the Massachusetts State House, which depict portraits of Samuel Adams, John Hancock, James Otis, and Joseph Warren.
In the 1870s, Smith was part of a prominent group of artists in Boston, often working alongside figures such as William Morris Hunt and Thomas Robinson. His professional reach extended to significant commissions, such as the decoration of the Union League Club in New York and the design of a casino in Green Bay, Florida. He also designed a cottage intended for Walt Whitman, though it was never built.
Training and Artistic Life
Smith received his training in Boston, studying under Hammatt Billings and at the Lowell Institute, where he drew from the antique at the Athenaeum. During the 1860s, he traveled to Europe to study at the atelier Suisse in Paris and worked with Léon Bonnat and other noted French painters.
His residential life in Boston's Beacon Hill was marked by his residence in the Sunflower House, a building he transformed with a tiled roof, abundant windows, and high-relief decorations including a huge sunflower and a winged lion. Throughout his career, Smith was active in the art community, serving on the Permanent Committee of the School of Drawing and Painting of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and acting as a judge in the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
