[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]
HAMBLIN SMITH, M[aria]. I[sabella]. [1880-1979] and not M. J. Hamblin Smith, as previously listed [1871–1936; British]
“On the Move”
four-color woodcut / 6 inches by 7.5 inches / #6 of 50
ca1920
Hamblin Smith is one of the collection’s mystery artists, attested by the paucity of biographical information available. It is possible he was the son of James Hamblin Smith, a life-long Cambridge tutor and author of texts on mathematics. Among Smith’s four children is a son named Maurice—who is plausibly the “M” in M. J.—though the latter’s career was spent in criminal justice as the superintendent of England’s Dartmoor Prison. It is tempting to imagine the administrator of a notorious detention facility like Dartmoor relaxing with chisels and a piece of soft wood—a hobby that would have been denied his inmates.
The pace of village life such as she might have encountered in Devon a hundred years ago is convincingly portrayed here with muted tones and stark contrast. We hear the whinny of a horse near retirement. We feel the weight of the teamster’s load. All is calm. It simply requires the arrival of Miss Marple.
UPDATE [17 Feb 2025]
It’s gratifying to find that these entries do not go unnoticed. Mr Richard Mountford has written to clarify my confusion: this is the work of Maria Isabella Hamblin Smith [1880-1979], sister-in-law of the artist first listed—because I mistook a script “I” for a script “J”. We are grateful for the correction and our good fortune in having an example of her work.
Hi
Just writing to let you know that the painting “On the move” is not by HAMBLIN SMITH, M. J.. It is by his sister-in-law Maria Isabella Hamblin Smith. She painted and exhibited in Cambridge UK, but her family came from Woodbridge in Suffolk and it’s likely this was a Suffolk village scene. Her husband Rupert was long-time Esquire Bedell at Cambridge University. Both he and Isabella played tennis singles and doubles tournaments for a couple of years before the Great War.
More information about Isabella’s art can be found at https://suffolkartists.co.uk/index.cgi?choice=painter&pid=1713. She painted portraits for both Peterhouse and Emmanuel College. I like the prison artist at Dartmoor idea, but I don’t think Maurice knew how to hold a brush. I think Isabella with tennis racquet and pallet in hand, rambling down the Suffolk lanes has equal charms.
Richard Mountford
Cambridge, UK
Dear Mr Mountford,
I do thank you so very much for the correction. The signatures are not always clear and sometimes stylized in “penmanship” that has disappeared in the intervening decades. Penmanship is no longer taught here in the U.S. and I find my students sometimes unable to read my own. I shall make the appropriate update forthwith.
Regards,
Ron Ramsay