George Henry Smillie was born into a family of painters and engravers in New York City. He studied engraving with his father but established his own reputation as a landscape painter. His views of farms and the shoreline of New England and Long Island won him popularity during his career. Smillie spent most of his professional life in New York City, but frequent painting trips took him as far as the Rocky Mountains and Yosemite Valley, which he visited in 1871.
[This is an excerpt from the interactive companion program to the videodisc American Art from the National Gallery of Art. Produced by the Department of Education Resources, this teaching resource is one of the Gallery's free-loan educational programs.]