Artworks

H. Leslie Smith was born in Montreal on May 26th, 1900. He first studied under Edmond Dyonnet, R.C.A., in 1916 at the Art School of the Council of Arts and Manufactures. He studied landscape painting with Maurice Cullen, painting in the Georgeville area in 1919. In 1922, he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, following the drawing and painting class under Fougerat. Smith twice won the Jessie Dow Prize for Watercolours, the first time being in 1940 and the second just a few years later.

For twenty years he instructed at the Sir George Williams School of Art, a three-year diploma course, serving in the capacity of Director for six of those years. The Arts Club of Montreal has held Retrospective Exhibitions of Leslie Smith’s work in 1947 and again in 1967. He is represented in the permanent collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Sir George Williams University, Loyola, The Shawinigan Water and Power Company (now Quebec Hydro), the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, and numerous private collections.

Smith was a regular exhibitor at the Art Association of Montreal exhibitions from 1923 until 1957 and at the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts exhibitions from 1935 - 1951.