Skip to main content

Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

American, 1863-1935
But success as an illustrator wasn't immediate. She got a job in the production department of The Ladies Home Journal in 1889 and was still working there five years later when Howard Pyle began teaching illustration at Drexel Institute of Arts and Sciences. Smith was accepted as a pupil in his first class. At 31, she was only 10 years younger than her teacher and one of his oldest students. Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley soon joined her in the class, and the three became lifelong friends. Smith's first commission through Pyle was for an 1897 edition of Evangeline that she illustrated with Oakley. The two joined another Pyle student to rent a studio, and Green later joined them there. In 1901, the three shared the lease on an old inn outside of Philadelphia. That's the same year as the illustration above from "The Last of the Fairy Wands" in the December issue of Scribners Magazine. She produced two calendars with Green for 1902 that helped establish the careers of both women. The most important was "The Child," which showcased some of her most sensitive renditions of children to date. The images were collected into a book the following year. One of Smith's three images from that book is above at right. The magazines and books of the day voraciously consumed as much color work as possible. Pyle's students were some of the best-prepared new entrants into the illustration market, and Pyle's name gave them access to the magazines' pages.
to
2
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
1
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
47
189
72
60
51
1
2
Artist: Jessie Willcox Smith
Mother and Child, Golden Age of Illustration
By Jessie Willcox Smith
Located in Miami, FL
America's greatest female illustrator draws a heartwarming picture of a mother putting to bed her child. Motherly love towards their children is the artist's most iconic theme. This ...
Category

Early 1900s Art Nouveau Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Illustration Board, Pen

Portrait of Seated Girl
By Jessie Willcox Smith
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Medium: Charcoal on Paper Signature: Signed Lower Right
Category

20th Century Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal

Related Items
French 19th Century Romantic Period 1830s Paris Society Beauty Portrait
By Adele Grasset
Located in Norwich, GB
A astounding portrait of a society beauty by Adele Grasset (active ca 1830-1850). With an open face and and lightly smiling lips, she is wearing a gown typical of the romantic period. Drawn in graphite and heightened with white, the drawing is dated 1836 As often with woman artists of the 18th and 19th century, there is little biographical information available on Adèle Grasset. We do know however, that she had studied with the highly prominent artist François Gérard (1770-1837) , known also as the Baron Gérard...
Category

1830s Academic Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Gouache

A Fine 1946 Modern Figure Study of a Handsome Young Male Model Wearing a Suit
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A Fine 1940s, Mid-Century Modern Academic Figure Study Portrait of a Handsome, Seated Male Model Wearing a Suit by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well executed early 1940s charcoal...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal, Paper

Mythological combat scene with Roman soldiers on horseback.
By Virgil Solis
Located in Middletown, NY
Pen and brownish black ink on grayish-cream laid paper, 6 1/2 x 8 inches (165 x 175 mm), irregular hexagonal sheet with margins. Some archival repairs along the top sheet edge, scatt...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Laid Paper, Pen

A Fine 1946 Modern Portrait Figure Study of a Handsome Young Male Model / Artist
By Harold Haydon
Located in Chicago, IL
A Fine 1940s, Mid-Century Modern Academic Portrait Figure Study of a Handsome Young Male Model by Notable Chicago Artist, Harold Haydon (Am. 1909-1994). An exceptionally well execut...
Category

1930s American Modern Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Pastel

Disegno accademia nudo maschile del XIX secolo su carta
Located in Florence, IT
Questa tipologia di disegno rientra pienamente nelle "accademie" ovvero degli studi dal vivo su modello (che poteva essere un modello in carne ed ossa oppure un'opera antica)che eran...
Category

19th Century Other Art Style Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal, Pencil

Portrait of George Arliss in Conte Crayon on Cardstock 1934
Located in Soquel, CA
Stately portrait of George Arliss by Ivan Opffer (Danish, 1897-1980). Mr. Arliss is depicted wearing his signature monocle, looking directly at the viewer. Although this piece appears to be done rapidly, there is a clear confidence in Opffer's work - he was an accomplished portrait artist - and the resemblance to the subject is unmistakable. George Arliss (born Augustus George Andrews; 10 April 1868 – 5 February 1946) was an English actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker who found success in the United States. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award – which he won for his performance as Victorian-era British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli in Disraeli (1929) – as well as the earliest-born actor to win the honour. He specialized in successful biopics, such as Disraeli, Voltaire (1933), and Cardinal Richelieu (1935), as well as light comedies, which included The Millionaire (1931) and A Successful Calamity (1932). Signed and dated "Ivan Opffer 1934" in the lower right. Titled "Mr. Arliss" in the lower left. Presented in a new off-white mat with foamcore backing. Mat size: 22"H x 16"W Art size: 17.5"H x 12"W Ivan Opffer (Danish, 1897-1980) was born in Nyborg, Denmark, on June 4, 1897, to a family of Danish scholars and journalists. His brother was Emil Opffer, a Danish merchant seaman and journalist who was known for his relationship with American writer Hart Crane. Ivan was raised in Mexico City and New York, where his anarchist father was the editor of a radical Danish-language newspaper. His involvement in painting and drawing began at an early age. At a summer workshop, he met and studied drawing with Winslow Homer, then went on to study at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. When the US entered World War I, Opffer was one of the members of the American Army Camouflage Corps, headed by Homer Saint-Gaudens (whose mother was a relative of Winslow Homer), the son of Augustus Saint-Gaudens. As a camoufleur, Opffer served with other artists and architects, some of whom became well-known, including Barry Faulkner, Sherry Edmundson Fry, Kimon Nicolaides, Robert Lawson, Abraham Rattner, Kerr Eby, and others. It was this same unit, while still in training in at Camp American University in Washington DC, that launched a camp newspaper called The Camoufleur. Only three issues were published before the unit’s deployment to France in late 1917. In the October 31 issue, a satirical portrait by Opffer of Homer Saint-Gaudens (titled “Our Boss”) was published on page 5. After the war, Opffer returned to New York, where he became known for his caricatures of leading Modern writers, among them James Joyce, Edgar Lee Masters, Siegfried Sassoon, George Bernard Shaw, Carl Sandburg, G.K. Chesterton, and Thomas Mann. In the years between the wars, Opffer married Betty à Beckett Chomley, and settled in Paris, where he was a student at the Academie Julliard. He also lived in London and Copenhagen, where his drawings were frequently published in newspapers and magazines. With the outbreak of World War II, he and his family returned to New York and lived in Greenwich Village. Among his friends in that era were William Butler Yeats, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald...
Category

1930s American Impressionist Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Conté, Postcard, Illustration Board

Portrait of a Man
By Manfred Schwartz
Located in Astoria, NY
Manfred Schwartz (American, b. Poland, 1909-1970), Portrait of a Man, Charcoal on Paper, with the artist's signature stamped lower left, unframed. 20" H x 25.5" W. Provenance: From a...
Category

Mid-20th Century Modern Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Charcoal

contemporary figurative black and white charcoal drawing pop art interior female
Located in New York, NY
This is a hand drawn original artwork on heavyweight paper by internet sensation mad charcoal He is represented by Krause Gallery NYC Ships rolled in a ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal, Archival Ink, Archival Paper

Ray Swanson (1937-2004) "Native American" Original Pen & Ink c.1960s
By Ray Swanson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Ray Swanson (1937-2004) "Native American" Original Pen & Ink c.1960s Fine portrait of a Native American Indian by listed Western artist Ray Swanson. Dime...
Category

Mid-20th Century Impressionist Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Pen

Seaman in petticoat breeches and slops, smoking a pipe, carrying a carpetbag.
Located in Middletown, NY
English School, 18th century Pen and black ink with gray wash on cream laid paper, 9 1/4 x 5 inches (238 x132 mm). 1/4 inch repaired loss, top center, to the left of the figure’s h...
Category

18th Century Realist Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Laid Paper, Pen

contemporary figurative color oil charcoal pop art interior surreal
Located in New York, NY
This is a hand painted oil and mixed media artwork on paper by internet sensation mad charcoal professionally He is represented by Krause Gallery NYC the artwork will be rolled and...
Category

2010s Contemporary Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal, Archival Ink, Oil, Archival Paper

19th C. Newspaper Illustration of Hiram H. Hobbs, Foreman of the Grand Jury 1898
Located in Soquel, CA
Historical late 19th century portrait of Hiram H. Hobbs, Foreman of the Grand Jury of San Francisco y Richard Langtry Partington (American, ...
Category

1890s American Impressionist Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

India Ink, Illustration Board

Previously Available Items
Young Woman Gazing
By Jessie Willcox Smith
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Approximate Date: 1900 Medium: Charcoal and Wash Signature: Signed Lower Left Dimensions: 15.00" x 9.75" Story Illustration "The Emigrant East", by...
Category

Early 1900s Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Charcoal

Man Kneeling to Woman in Flounced Dress
By Jessie Willcox Smith
Located in Fort Washington, PA
Approximate Date: 1926 Medium: Charcoal, Watercolor and Oil on Board Signature: Signed Lower Right Size: 25.75" x 16.00" Men Kneeling to woman in flounced dress. Illustration from Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott...
Category

1920s American Modern Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Board, Charcoal, Oil, Watercolor

Jessie Willcox Smith portrait drawings and watercolors for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Jessie Willcox Smith portrait drawings and watercolors available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Jessie Willcox Smith in charcoal, board, illustration board and more. Not every interior allows for large Jessie Willcox Smith portrait drawings and watercolors, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Jessie Willcox Smith portrait drawings and watercolors prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $22,000 and tops out at $115,000, while the average work can sell for $24,000.
Questions About Jessie Willcox Smith Portrait Drawings and Watercolors
  • 1stDibs ExpertJanuary 10, 2025
    The most famous book that Jessie Willcox Smith illustrated is arguably Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. However, the American artist also produced illustrations for numerous other books. Among them were A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, The Seven Ages of Childhood by Carolyn Wells, The Rhymes of Real Children by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and An Old-Fashioned Girl, also by Louisa May Alcott. Explore a range of Jessie Willcox Smith art on 1stDibs.

Recently Viewed

View All