Price Edward County, circa 1930 by Lorne Kidd Smith
Price Edward County, circa 1930 by Lorne Kidd Smith
Lorne Kidd Smith (Canadian, 1880-1966)
Signed: Lorne. K. Smith (Lower, Right)
" Prince Edward County ", circa 1930
(Titled on Verso)
Oil on Board
16" x 20"
Housed in a 3" Frame
Overall Size: 21 1/2" x 25 1/2"
Depth: 1 3/4"
Understanding the Painting:
In " Prince Edward County ", Lorne Kidd Smith presents an idealized vision of rural Ontario, with a farmer guiding a team of oxen across freshly worked earth while the broad blue waters beyond open the landscape toward the horizon. The oxen and plow evoke an older agricultural tradition deeply connected to the history of Prince Edward County, where oxen were instrumental in clearing and breaking the land during early settlement. Smith heightens the scene with the sweeping rainbow, which gives the otherwise everyday act of farming an almost symbolic quality - suggesting renewal, abundance, and the relationship between weather, land, and livelihood. The contrast between the dark, fertile foreground, brilliant water, and luminous sky gives the painting unusual depth and presence, transforming a simple agricultural scene into an affectionate portrait of the Canadian landscape and the people who worked it.
About the Artist:
Lorne Kidd Smith was a Canadian painter, illustrator, draftsman, and commercial artist born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, who spent much of his professional life in Toronto. He studied art in Boston as a young man and worked for the Forbes Lithographing Company before returning to Canada. After relocating to Toronto in 1909, Smith developed a substantial career in commercial and graphic art, working for firms including Stone Limited, Brigdens Limited, R.G. McLean, Grip Limited, General Motors, Photo Engravers Limited, and later Schaeffer-Ross, where he eventually served as vice-president. He also received recognition for a First World War Victory Loan poster design.
Alongside his commercial career, Smith was active as a fine artist. He exhibited with the Ontario Society of Artists and became a prominent member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art, serving as its vice-president in 1924–25. Working in oil, gouache, tempera, watercolor, pen and ink, pencil, and poster design, Smith painted landscapes, marine and rural scenes, figures, urban subjects, and historical compositions. His subjects extended from Ontario and Quebec to the Canadian Rockies and the American Southwest.
Smith became particularly known for paintings illustrating episodes from Canadian history. Among his best-known works are "The Meeting of Brock and Tecumseh" and "Laura Secord Warning Colonel FitzGibbon, June 1813 ", both dating to around the 1920s and now preserved by Library and Archives Canada.
Smith continued working as an artist for decades, combining the strong narrative and compositional abilities of a commercial illustrator with an enduring interest in Canadian landscape, rural life, and history. His surviving paintings range from historical narratives to agricultural landscapes and marine subjects, providing a varied record of Canadian scenery and life during the first half of the twentieth century.