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Smith, Pamela Colman

Birth date

1877

Death date

1951

Biography

Born in Britain to an American father and Jamican mother, Pamela Colman-Smith was born in England and then moved with her family to the USA. She studied art at the Pratt Isntitute under the legendary painter, print maker and photographer, Arthur Wesley Dow. She however, left the Institute without a degreee due to illness. She did however begin her career as an illustrator. By the age of 21 both her parents had died, and so she decided to come to England. Here she branched into theatre design and became friends with Ellen Terry. She was taken under the wing of the Lyceum company and accompanied them on their tours to America. She made many caricatures and illustrations of the people in the company. A large portfolio of these are held in Smallhythe. Over her life time Pamela Colman-Smith illustrated over 20 books, and edited magazines and ran her own called 'The Green Sheaf Press'. However after the first world war Pamel found it increasingly difficult to find war, perhaps due to the change in public taste, and switched to running a guest house in Cornwall. She died penniless and largely forgotten, though her work is being rediscovered in recnt years.
 
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