"Charley Yellow Boy"

Painted at Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1907

"Rosie Yellow Boy"

Charley's sister

One would have expected, particularly given the times, that a young woman with such a background would have remained on the East Coast for the duration.  But a fascination with the American West was developed when Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show came to Madison Square Garden in 1907.  Intrigued with the faces of the Indian children, she was granted permission to paint over a hundred portraits of the show’s Sioux and Arapaho participants and their children.  Then in 1913 novelist Zane Grey, who was also married to Lillian’s cousin, invited Lillian to accompany him to Arizona on a trip to Navajo country for the purpose of illustrating his sequel to “Riders of the Purple Sage”.   Describing the trip 20 years later to a Phoenix radio station, Smith recalled that she “was initiated into my life in this blessed land by a 400 mile horseback trip, accompanied by a chuck wagon with supplies”.  Grey’s book was eventually titled “The Rainbow Trail ”.  Lillian went on to stay in Arizona for the next sixty years.

                           "Trading Post near Tuba City, Arizona"  Circa 1920's                                                   Cover for "The Rainbow Trail "

For her first twenty years in Arizona she lived in various places in the Phoenix area, fifteen of which were on a 20 acre citrus ranch in Scottsdale.  Summers were spent in northern Arizona, often accompanying Grey on trips to provide art work for his novels or to look for locations for Grey’s movie sets.  It was on one such trip that she met Jess Smith.  Smith was a working cowboy and guide in the four corners area who was often used as the model for Grey’s novel characters including Brazos Keene and Pecos Smith.  Despite the differences in background, the two were married in 1924.  They remained married until Jesse’s death in 1960.

Lillian near Kayenta                                                                                                  "Sedona from the Mogollon Rim"

Circa 1920's

Photo courtesy of Sharlot Hall Museum

Prescott, Arizona

During the winter season from 1930 to 1935 Lillian served as an “artist in residence” for the art shop at the Biltmore in Phoenix.  It was here that she developed tableware painted with Navajo and Hopi patterns.  These china sets were later sold by Goldwater’s department stores in the 1940’s.   Grosset and Dunlap published a series of 12 lithographs based on her paintings which included subjects ranging from Monument Valley to the Superstitions, to Oak Creek Canyon.

	Navajo Mother and Child Grand Canyon-Circa 1915
Near Kayenta, Arizona circa 1920's.  Photos courtesy of  Harvey Leake

 During her life in Arizona she traveled to every part of the state painting what she saw.  Yet she never learned how to drive.  More often than not she was driven to sites by her husband Jesse, who also helped to make the often remote and rugged locations as comfortable as possible.  She was the first woman artist to paint Rainbow Bridge in Utah as well as one of the only artists to paint on location in Havasupai Canyon.

"Christmas 1962-Prescott, Arizona"                                                                       "Seven Palms"

"Four Peaks"

 In 1937 the Smith’s sold their home in Scottsdale and moved to Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona to operate a guest ranch.  The guest ranch was located on land once owned by Sedona Schnebly, who Sedona was named for.  The two spent the next ten years there, a time which Lillian later referred to as the best years of her life.  In 1950 they moved to Cochise County in the southeastern part of the state.  The next several years were itinerant before they finally settled in Prescott, where Jesse died in 1960.  Lillian lived out the rest of her years in Prescott, continuing to paint until her death on February 22, 1971.

Sources: "Arizona Triptych" by Donna Ashworth

Blue Coyote Gallery                       480-488-2334          info@bluecoyotegallery.com

6145 E. Cave Creek Rd.          Cave Creek                          Arizona                          85331