310 - THOMAS SMYTHE (BRITISH 1825-1906)HORSES AND PONIES OUTSIDE AN INN, WITH TRAVELLERS RESTING; A WINTER SCENE WITH A WOODCUTTER OUTSIDEOil on board, a pairBoth signed (lower right and lower left respectively)Each 35 x 61cm (13¾ x 24in.) (2)Painted circa 1860.Provenance:Private collection, UKSale, Shakespeare, McTurk and Graham, Leicester, 20 September 1973, lots 283 and 284Richard Green, London, 1973, no. L459Private collection, UK, 1975Thomas Smythe was a prominent Ipswich painter of rural scenes, landscapes with animals and coastal views. He particularly excelled at winter landscapes. Smythe was born in Ipswich in 1825,the son of an accountant, James Smythe and his wife Sarah. Thomas first worked with his elderbrother Edward Robert Smythe (1810-1899), who was also a painter. His work was greatlyinfluenced by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and he was also an admirer of GeorgeMorland (1763-1804), whose favourite haunt, the Old Plough Inn, Kensal Green, he visited andpainted in 1898.Smythe set up a studio independently at Brook Street, Ipswich in 1846, where he made some ofhis finest works. These included pairs and quartets of paintings which often illustrated theseasons. In 1874, he collaborated with his brother on some engravings for the FashionableRepository, published annually. In 1876, Smythe visited Cumberland, a trip that inspired many ofhis subsequent works. He also visited the West Country, the Sussex coast and the Isle of Wight.He moved to London in 1899 but died in Ipswich in 1906. Several of Thomas’s children wereartists, notably Ernest William (1874-1950), who emigrated to America and worked for WaltDisney Studios.Thomas Smythe exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1856 and 1862, and at the IpswichFine Art Club between 1878 and 1903. He was awarded a silver medal by the Ipswich Fine ArtClub in 1868.