Louise Jordan Smith (March 28, 1868 – December 31, 1928) was an American painter and academic. Smith was active as an artist in Lynchburg,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 1895 she and Bernhard Gutmann founded the Lynchburg Art League. During the 1890s she studied art in Paris for two years, and during that same decade she became chairman of the art department at

Randolph-Macon Woman's College Randolph College is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Lynchburg, Virginia. Founded in 1891 as Randolph-Macon Woman's College, it was renamed on July 1, 2007, when it became coeducational. The college offers 32 majors; 42 minors; � ...

. A cousin of the institution's first president,

William Waugh Smith William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, she held that "the only way to develop taste in art is to study paintings frequently, seriously, and at leisure," and it was she who suggested

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

as the artist for his formal portrait, presented to the school in 1907 by the senior class of that year. The first art professor on the college's faculty, it was she who instigated the purchase of '' Men of the Docks'' by

George Bellows George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realism, American realist painting, painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art ...

in 1920, an event which marked the foundation of the school's

Maier Museum of Art Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College features works by American artists from the 19th through 21st centuries. Randolph College (founded at Randolph-Macon Women's College) has been collecting American art since 1907 and the Maier Museum of Art n ...

. It was also under her direction that the college held its First Annual Exhibition in 1911, believed to be the first exhibition of modern art held on a college campus anywhere in the United States. Furthermore, in 1893 Smith opened her lectures to the women of Lynchburg, which one source claims may have been the first organized system of

adult education Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...

in Virginia. During her academic career Smith also taught French at the College, and invited prominent artists of her acquaintance to come and speak to the student body. At her death she was buried in the Warrenton Cemetery in Warrenton, Virginia. Smith's pupils included

Georgia Weston Morgan Georgia Weston Morgan (December 18, 1869 – December 4, 1951) was an American painter. Born in Campbell County, Virginia, Campbell County, Virginia, Morgan was the daughter of Robert Withers Morgan and grew up at the family estate, Centervi ...

, herself to become a prominent figure in Lynchburg's artistic scene. In 2018 the Virginia Capitol Foundation announced that Nottingham's name would be included on the

Virginia Women's Monument The Virginia Women's Monument is a state memorial in Richmond, Virginia commemorating the contributions of Virginia women to the history of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States of America. Located on the grounds of the Virginia Stat ...

's glass Wall of Honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Louise Jordan 1868 births 1928 deaths 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters People from Lynchburg, Virginia Painters from Virginia Randolph College faculty American women academics