Smart, Robert Borlase

Biography

Robert Borlase Smart ROI, RBA – 1881 – 1947

Smart was born in Kingsbridge, Devon and was schooled in Plymouth. He began his artistic training at the South Kensington schools, London, where he attained first class honours in design, going on to study under Julius Olsson in St. Ives.

He described himself as an “oil painter of seascapes, watercolourist and etcher of architectural subjects” and worked for a time as artist and art critic for the Western Morning News.

In the First World War, Smart fulfilled his war service by being a Captain and instructor in camouflage in the Machine Gun Corps.

Settling in St. Ives in the 1920s, he became both a Town Councillor and Secretary to the St. Ives Arts Club. The St. Ives Society of Artists was founded in 1927 and Smart joined its committee in 1929, going on to become its Secretary and its principal organiser and motivator.

After Smart’s death, his artist colleagues established a Memorial Fund which acquired Porthmeor Studios, and a retrospective exhibition was held in Penwith Gallery.

Smart’s paintings can be found in public collections throughout the World, including the Imperial War Museum, National Maritime Museum, Bombay, Auckland, Truro, Plymouth, Bristol, Swindon and Leamington.