Dorothy Carleton Smyth

• Name — Dorothy Smyth • Born — 1 March 1880 • Died — 15 February 1933 • Birthplace — Cambuslang, Scotland • Movement — Arts and Crafts Movement Golden Age of Illustration • Education — Manchester School of Art, 1892-1893 Glasgow School of Art, 1898-1902 • Known for — Theatre, Costume Design • Place of death — Cambuslang, Scotland

Smyth was born in Cambuslang near Glasgow in 1880 to Elizabeth Ramage and a jute manufacturer, William Hugh Smyth; her parents originated from France and Ireland, respectively. Although the family moved to Manchester in the 1880s, Smyth returned to Glasgow to study, as did her sister, Olive (1882–1949), who also became an artist. A third sister, Rose, became a composer. • Illustration — The Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1899), cover art by Dorothy C. Smyth, front cover • Illustration — The Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1899), cover art by Dorothy C. Smyth, back cover

• Illustration — The Glasgow School of Art, where Smyth studied and later taught. Between 1885 and 1893 Smyth attended the Colonel Clark's School in Manchester and the Manchester High School for Girls. She studied under Walter Crane at the Manchester School of Art between 1893 and 1897. Crane, an advocate of the Arts and Crafts Movement, espoused the practical application of the arts for books, clothing, and the use of artisanal craft in all aspects production. Smyth's work during this period for bookbinder Cedric Chivers, a publisher of handcrafted editions of popular works such as The Poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson and The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, was a natural extension of her work with Crane. Smyth was already such an accomplished illustrator that she was entrusted with interior design-work (as in her illustrations to Chivers's Jungle Book edition) as well as designs for the elaborately hand-colored covers of these vellucent books. The Arts and Crafts Movement was additionally an advocate for developing a sense of place; it is therefore not surprising that, following these first years of training, Smyth, chose, at the age of 18, to return to Scotland and her early home, to continue her studies at the Glasgow School of Art (GSA). By the time she had begun her study at Glasgow (1898), Smyth's interest had become focused on theatre and costume design, "her fascination with exotic clothes" leading her to active participation in the many student-produced plays and masques within the school.

Smyth's work, with its elegant, art nouveau aesthetic, stood out from her student days. Her stained glass window Tristan and Iseult was selected for exhibition at the Glasgow International Exhibition (1901), even before she had received her diploma. Following her graduation from GSA (1902), an anonymous female patron paid for her membership in the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists and financed her travel to Florence, Paris, and Switzerland to "study the European masters". In 1903, she was commissioned by Craibe Angus to exhibit in Turin, Cork, Toronto and Budapest. Later that same year, through the GSLA, Smyth would meet F.R. Benson, a theatrical producer who hired Smyth for his touring company. She would spend the next decade traveling and producing costume-work.

Smyth's work for Benson including the costumes for a number of Shakespearean festivals in Stratford, for Benson and other theatrical companies, as well as work for pageants, festivals, and the "tableaux" that remained popular during this period. Alongside this travel, Smyth retained her Glaswegian connections. In 1912, she was in Glasgow, organizing the committee for a holiday "pageant tableau," working for the Glasgow Repertory Company, and the Quinlan Opera Company. With her sister, Olive, and several other female artists from Glasgow, Smyth helped found the Sister Studios which offered classes in a variety of disciplines including metalwork, embroidery and ceramic decoration. This work gave Smyth detailed managerial experience that would serve her well on her permanent return to Glasgow to take up a teaching post at her old school.

• Illustration — Costume design for Donalbain. • Illustration — Costume design for Macduff, from Shakespeare's Macbeth. • Illustration — Costume design for Lennox, from Shakespeare's Macbeth. • Illustration — Costume design for the English Doctor, from Shakespeare's Macbeth. • Illustration — Dorothy C Smyth, Servants of the Queen, Costume Design for Oscar Wilde's Salome • Illustration — Dorothy C Smyth, Salome, Costume Design for Oscar Wilde's Salome.

In 1927, Smyth was appointed head of the Commercial Art Department (1927), where she remained until 1933. In early 1933, Smyth was offered the full Directorship of GSA, "perhaps the first women to be offered such a post within a higher education institution." Smyth accepted, however, she died little more than a month later, from a massive brain hemorrhage.