Editing Pamela Colman Smith

{{Short description|British occultist, artist and illustrator (1878–1951)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Pamela Colman Smith
| image              = Pamela Colman Smith The Craftsman cropped.jpg
| caption            = Smith in the October 1912 issue of ''The Craftsman'' magazine
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1878|2|16|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Pimlico]], [[London]], England
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1951|9|16|1878|2|16|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Bude]], Cornwall, England
| nationality        = British
| other_names        = Pixie
| known_for          = [[Rider–Waite Tarot|Waite–Smith Tarot]]
| education          = [[Pratt Institute]]
| occupation         = Artist, illustrator, and writer
| signature          = Pamela Colman Smith signature.svg
}}

'''Pamela Colman Smith''' (16 February 1878 – 16 September 1951), nicknamed "Pixie", was a British artist, illustrator, writer, publisher, and [[Occult|occultist]]. She is best-known for illustrating the [[Rider–Waite Tarot]] (also known as the Rider–Waite–Smith or Waite–Smith Tarot) for [[Arthur Edward Waite]]. This [[Tarot|tarot deck]] became the standard among [[tarot card reading|tarot card readers]], and remains the most widely used today.<ref name="Decker291">{{cite book |last1=Decker |first1=Ronald |last2=Dummett |first2=Michael |title=A History of the Occult Tarot |date=2019 |publisher=Duckworth |location=London |isbn=9780715645727 |page=291}}</ref><ref name="Giles1994">{{cite book |last1=Giles |first1=Cynthia |title=The Tarot: History, Mystery, and Lore |date=1994 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=0671891014 |page=46}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Visions and Prophecies |date=1988 |publisher=Time-Life Books |location=Alexandria, Virginia |page=142 |url=https://archive.org/details/visionsprophecie00time/page/142/mode/2up}}</ref> Smith also illustrated over 20 books, wrote two collections of [[Caribbean folklore|Jamaican folklore]], edited two magazines, and ran the Green Sheaf Press, a [[small press]] focused on women writers.<ref name="Kaplan11">{{harvnb|Kaplan|2018|p=11}}
</ref>

==Biography==
Smith was born at 28 Belgrave Road in [[Pimlico]], part of [[central London]].<ref>{{harvnb|Kaplan|2009|page=5}}
</ref> She was the only child of a merchant from [[Brooklyn]], [[New York (state)|New York]] (before it was part of [[New York City]]), Charles Edward Smith (son of Brooklyn mayor [[Cyrus P. Smith|Cyrus Porter Smith]]), and his wife Corinne Colman (sister of the painter [[Samuel Colman]]). The family was based in [[Manchester]] for the first decade of Smith's life.  In 1889, they moved to Jamaica when Charles Smith took a job with the West India Improvement Company, a financial syndicate involved in extending [[Rail transport in Jamaica|the Jamaican railroad system]]. The Smiths lived in the capital, [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]], for several years, traveling to London and New York.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

By 1893, Smith had moved to Brooklyn, where, at the age of 15, she enrolled at the [[Pratt Institute]], which had been founded six years earlier. There she studied art under [[Arthur Wesley Dow]], painter, print maker, photographer, and influential arts educator.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://hyperallergic.com/490918/pamela-colman-smith-pratt-institute-libraries/|title=Reviving a Forgotten Artist of the Occult|date=2019-03-23|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-17}}</ref> Her mature drawing style shows clear traces of the visionary qualities of [[fin-de-siècle]] [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolism]] and the [[Romanticism]] of the preceding [[Arts and Crafts movement]]. 

In 1896, while Smith was in art school, her mother died in Jamaica. Smith herself was ill on and off during these years and in the end left Pratt in 1897 without a degree. She became an illustrator; some of her first projects included ''The Illustrated Verses of [[William Butler Yeats]]'', a book on actress Dame [[Ellen Terry]] by [[Bram Stoker]], and two of her own books, ''Widdicombe Fair'' and ''Fair Vanity'' (a reference to ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'').

In 1899 her father died, leaving Smith orphaned at the age of 21. She returned to England that year, continuing to work as an illustrator, and branching out into theatrical design for a miniature theatre. In London, she was taken under the wing of the [[Lyceum Theatre, London#Irving years|Lyceum Theatre group]] led by Terry (who is said to have given her the nickname 'Pixie'), [[Henry Irving]], and [[Bram Stoker]] and traveled with them around the country, working on costumes and stage design.

In 1901, she established a studio in London and held a weekly open house for artists, authors, actors, and others involved with the arts. [[Arthur Ransome]], then in his early 20s, describes one of these "at home" evenings, and the curious artistic circle around Smith, in his 1907 ''[[Bohemia in London]]''.

Smith wrote and illustrated two books about [[Caribbean folklore|Jamaican folklore]]: ''Annancy Stories'' (1899) and ''Chim-Chim, Folk Stories from Jamaica'' (1905). These books included [[Culture of Jamaica|Jamaican versions of tales]] involving the traditional African folk figure [[Anansi]] the Spider.<ref>{{harvnb|Kaplan|2009|pages=30–32}}</ref> She also continued her illustration work, taking on projects for [[William Butler Yeats]] and his brother, the painter [[Jack Yeats]]. She illustrated Bram Stoker's last novel, ''[[The Lair of the White Worm]]'' in 1911, and Ellen Terry's book on [[Diaghilev]]'s [[Ballets Russes]], ''The Russian Ballet'' in 1913.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Terry |first1=Ellen |title=THE RUSSIAN BALLET By Ellen Terry Withdrawings By Pamela Colman Smith 1913 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45299/45299-h/45299-h.htm |via=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref>

Smith supported the struggle for the right to vote, and through the [[Suffrage Atelier]], a collective of professional illustrators, she contributed artwork to further the cause of [[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom|women's suffrage in Great Britain]]. Smith also donated her services for poster designs and toys to the Red Cross during World War I.<ref>{{harvnb|Pyne|2007|pages=[https://archive.org/details/modernismfeminin0000pyne/page/59 59] "She worked for the Red Cross during World War I, again contributing poster designs and toys she made herself for children's aid."}}</ref>

In 1903, Smith launched her own magazine under the title ''The Green Sheaf'', with contributions by Yeats, Christopher St John ([[Christabel Marshall]]), Cecil French, A. E. ([[George William Russell]]), [[Edward Gordon Craig|Gordon Craig]] (Ellen Terry's son), [[John Todhunter]], and others. ''The Green Sheaf''  survived for a little over a year, a total of 13 issues.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=O'Connor|first=Elizabeth Foley|year=2016|title="We disgruntled devils don't please anybody": Pamela Colman Smith, The Green Sheaf, and Female Literary Networks|url=https://cup.sites.clemson.edu/scr/articles/scr-48n2-oconnor.pdf|journal=The South Carolina Review|volume=v. 48, no. 2|pages=73–89|via=Clemson University|access-date=1 April 2017|archive-date=2 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402082926/https://cup.sites.clemson.edu/scr/articles/scr-48n2-oconnor.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Discouraged by ''The Green Sheaf's'' lack of financial success, Smith shifted her efforts towards setting up a [[small press]] in London. In 1904, she established The Green Sheaf Press which published a variety of novels, poems, fairy tales, and folktales until at least 1906, mostly by women writers.<ref name="Kaplan56">{{harvnb|Kaplan|2018|pages=56–58}}</ref>

In 1907, [[Alfred Stieglitz]] gave an exhibition of Smith's paintings in New York at his Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession (also known as [[291 (Art Gallery)|gallery 291]]), making Smith the first painter to have a show at what had been until then a gallery devoted exclusively to the photographic [[avant-garde]]. Stieglitz was intrigued by Smith's [[Synesthesia|synaesthetic]] sensibility; in this period, Smith would paint visions that came to her while listening to music. The show was successful enough that Stieglitz issued a [[platinum print]] portfolio of 22 of her paintings and showed her work twice more, in 1908 and 1909. Some Smith works that did not sell remained with Stieglitz and ended up in the Stieglitz/[[Georgia O'Keeffe]] Archive at [[Yale University]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Norfleet |first=Phil |title=Alfred Stieglitz and Pamela Colman Smith: Biography of Pamela Colman Smith |url=http://pcs2051.tripod.com/stieglitz_archive.htm |access-date=15 November 2022 |website=pcs2051.tripod.com}}</ref>

[[File:Pamela Colman Smith, “The Blue Cat” (1907), watercolor on paper board.jpg|alt=Mythical blue cat painted by Pamela Colman Smith|thumb|Pamela Colman Smith, ''The Blue Cat'' (1907), watercolor on paper board]]
Yeats introduced Smith to the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]], which she joined in 1901 and in the process met Arthur Edward Waite. When the Golden Dawn splintered due to personality conflicts, Smith moved with Waite to the Independent and Rectified Rite of the Golden Dawn (or Holy Order of the Golden Dawn). In 1909, Waite commissioned Smith to produce a [[Tarot|tarot deck]] with appeal to the world of art, and the result was the unique Waite–Smith tarot deck. Published by [[Rider (imprint)|William Rider & Son]] of London, it has endured as the world's most popular 78-card tarot deck. The innovative cards depict full scenes with figures and symbols on all of the cards including the pips, and Smith's distinctive drawings have become the basis for the design of many subsequent packs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jensen |first=K. Frank |title=The story of the Waite-Smith Tarot |date=2006 |publisher=Association for Tarot Studies |isbn=0-9757122-1-7 |location=Melbourne |oclc=224928911}}</ref>

Apart from book illustration projects and the tarot deck, her art found little in the way of commercial outlets after her early success with Stieglitz in New York. Several examples of her works done in [[gouache]] were collected by her cousin, the American [[Sherlock Holmes]] actor [[William Gillette]], and may be found today prominently displayed in [[Gillette Castle State Park|his castle]] in Connecticut.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

In 1911, Smith converted to Roman Catholicism. After the end of the [[First World War]], Smith received an inheritance from an uncle that enabled her to lease a house on the [[Lizard Peninsula]] in [[Cornwall]], an area popular with artists. For income, she established a holiday home for Catholic priests in a neighbouring house. Her longtime friend, Nora Lake, joined her in Cornwall and helped to run the vacation home.<ref name="Kaplan86">{{harvnb|Kaplan|2018|page=86}}</ref>

After several years of financial difficulty, Smith left the Lizard and relocated first to [[Exeter]] in 1939, and then to [[Bude]] in the early 1940s. Although she continued writing and illustrating, she was unable to find publishers for her work, probably due to changes in public taste following the First World War.<ref name="Kaplan89">{{harvnb|Kaplan|2018|pages=89–90}}</ref>

Smith died in her apartment at the Bencoolen House in Bude on 18 September 1951. Her possessions were auctioned off to pay her debts. The location of her gravesite is unknown, but it is likely that she was buried in an unmarked grave in St. Michael's Cemetery in Bude.<ref name="Kaplan89"/>

<gallery>
File:Buy a Bulldog on June 16th and make our brave boys more comfortable.jpg|A [[World War I]]-era poster by Smith, encouraging people to buy a [[bulldog]], with proceeds going to benefit soldiers
File:Sheaf-7.png|Cover of ''The Green Sheaf'', issue 1, a [[literary magazine]] edited and published by Smith
</gallery>

==Waite–Smith Tarot==
{{Main articles|Rider–Waite Tarot}}
[[File:RWS Tarot 00 Fool.jpg|thumb|[[The Fool (Tarot card)|"The Fool"]] card from the [[Rider–Waite Tarot|Waite–Smith Tarot]]]]
The 78 illustrations that make up the [[Rider–Waite Tarot|Waite–Smith Tarot]] "represent archetypal subjects that each become a portal to an invisible realm of signs and symbols, believed to be channeled through processes of divination." They are original works of art and unique in terms of the cards' stylization, draftsmanship, and composition, which is a significant aesthetic achievement. They are one of the best examples of Smith's imagination for fantasy, folly, ecstasy, death, and the macabre.<ref name=":0" />

The deck bearing Smith's illustrations, first published in England by Rider in December 1909, were simply labeled ''Tarot Cards'' and accompanied by ''The Key to the Tarot'' guide by Arthur Edward Waite. His guide was updated the following year with Smith's black-and-white drawings, and republished as ''[[The Pictorial Key to the Tarot]]''. 

[[U.S. Games]] acquired the rights to publish the deck in 1971, released variously as ''The Rider Tarot Deck'', simply ''Rider Tarot'', and ''Rider Waite Tarot''. Based on differences in U.S. and U.K. copyright law, the extent of their copyright in the Waite–Smith deck is disputed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/faq.htm#usgamesclaim |title=The Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot Card Copyright FAQ |publisher=Sacred-texts.com |access-date=2012-03-31}}</ref> Recent scholars, recognizing the central importance of Smith's contribution, often refer to the deck as the ''Waite–Smith Tarot'',<ref>{{harvnb|Jensen|2005}}</ref> while others prefer the abbreviation RWS, for Rider–Waite–Smith.

In the century since the deck's first printing, there have been dozens of editions put out by various publishers; for some of these the Smith drawings were redrawn by other artists, and for others the cards were rephotographed to create new printing plates. Many versions have been recolored as the coloration is rather harsh in the original deck, due to the limitations of color printing at the time. One example is the 1968 Albano–Waite Tarot, which has brighter colors overlaid on the same pen-and-ink drawings. Some recent U.S. Games editions have removed Smith's hand-drawn titles for each card, substituting text in a standard typeface. Altogether, these decks encompass the full range from editions very closely based on the original printings to decks that can at most be termed 'inspired' by the Waite–Smith deck.

Waite is often cited as the designer of the Waite–Smith Tarot, but it would be more accurate to consider him as half of a design team, with responsibility for the major concepts, the structure of individual cards, and the overall symbolic system. Because Waite was not an artist himself, he commissioned Smith to create the actual deck.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Waite |first=Arthur Edward |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42647945 |title=Shadows of life and thought : a retrospective review in the form of memoirs |date=c. 1997 |publisher=Kessinger Pub. Co |isbn=1-56459-242-1 |location=Montana |pages=184 |oclc=42647945}}</ref>

It is likely that Smith worked from Waite's written and verbal instructions rather than from sketches; that is, from detailed descriptions of the desired designs. This is how illustrators often work, and as a commercial illustrator, Smith would probably have been comfortable with such a working process. It appears that Waite provided detailed instructions mainly or exclusively for the [[Major Arcana]], and simple lists of meanings for the [[Minor Arcana]] or 'pip' cards. Thus the memorable scenes of the Minor Arcana owe largely to Smith's own invention. The Minor Arcana are one of the notable achievements of this deck, as most earlier tarot decks, especially those of the Marseilles type, have extremely simple pip cards. Smith's innovative illustrations for the Minor Arcana, with their rich symbolism, made the Waite–Smith deck a widely imitated model for other tarot decks.<ref>{{harvnb|Kaplan|2009|pages=76–77}}</ref>

Smith and Waite drew on a number of sources as inspirations for the deck's designs. In particular, it appears that Waite took his inspiration for the trumps mainly from the French [[Tarot of Marseilles]]. The oldest date from the 16th century, with his model possibly being a Marseilles deck from the 18th century. It is not unlikely that other Marseilles-type Italian tarot decks from the 18th or 19th century were used as additional models. For the pips, it appears that Smith drew mainly on the 15th century Italian [[Sola Busca tarot]];<ref name="autogenerated177">[[Place, Robert M.]] (2005) ''The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination'', Tarcher/Penguin, New York, 2005, pages 177-186 {{ISBN|1-58542-349-1}}</ref> the 3 of Swords, for example, clearly shows the congruity between the two decks. In addition, there is evidence that some figures in the deck are portraits of Smith's friends, notably actresses [[Ellen Terry]] (the [[Queen of Wands (tarot card)|Queen of Wands]]) and [[Florence Farr]] (the [[The World (tarot card)|World]]).<ref>{{harvnb|Jensen|2005| p= 31}}</ref>

Smith completed the art for the deck in the six months between April and October 1909. This is a short period of time for an artist to complete some 80 pictures,<ref name="autogenerated177"/> the number claimed by Smith in a letter to Stieglitz in 1909 and closely corresponding to the standard 78-card tarot deck.<ref>Kaplan, Stuart R.. ''The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume III,'' U.S. Games Inc., Stanford, CT, 1990, p. 30 {{ISBN|0-88079-122-5}}</ref> The illustrations were most likely done in pen and ink, possibly over a pencil underdrawing; the original drawings are lost so this cannot be determined with certainty at present. They were either colored with watercolor by Smith or colored by someone else after the fact.

== Posthumous exhibitions ==
The exhibition ''To All Believers—The Art of Pamela Colman Smith'' was held in the United States in 1975, sponsored by the [[University of Delaware]] and the [[Delaware Art Museum]] in association with the Delaware chapter of [[The Victorian Society#Victorian Society in America|The Victorian Society in America]].<ref name="Kaplan410">{{harvnb |Kaplan |2018 |page=410}}</ref> The exhibition was held at the Delaware Art Museum from 11 September to 19 October, and at the [[Princeton University Art Museum|Art Museum, Princeton University]], from 4 November to 7 December.<ref name="Parsons1975">{{cite book |last1=Parsons |first1=Melinda Boyd |title=To All Believers: The Art of Pamela Colman Smith |date=1975 |publisher=University of Delaware}}</ref>

An exhibition, ''Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle'', was held in 2007–2008.  It was at three museums: the [[Georgia O'Keeffe Museum]] in Santa Fe, New Mexico; the [[High Museum of Art]] in Atlanta, Georgia; and the [[San Diego Museum of Art]] in San Diego, California. The exhibition included works by Smith and other women artists who were active in the art and photography scene prior to O'Keeffe. Their works help to put O'Keeffe's art in the context of the time.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/8aa/8aa15.htm|title=Georgia O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle|website=tfaoi.com|access-date=2017-02-09}}</ref> The exhibition was based on the scholarly book ''Modernism and the Feminine Voice: O'Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle'' by Kathleen Pyne, which contains a chapter on Smith.<ref>{{harvnb|Pyne|2007|pages=1–61}}</ref>

The Brooklyn Campus of the [[Pratt Institute Libraries]] mounted the exhibition ''Pamela Colman Smith: Life and Work'' in 2019, including books, prints, reproductions of paintings and illustrations, tarot decks, and photographs.<ref>{{cite web |title=Opening Reception and Tarot Reading for ''Pamela Colman Smith: Life and Work'' |url=https://www.pratt.edu/events/event/14556/ |publisher=Pratt Institute |access-date=14 March 2021}}</ref><ref name="Ray2019">{{cite web |last1=Ray |first1=Sharmistha |title=Reviving a Forgotten Artist of the Occult |url=https://hyperallergic.com/490918/pamela-colman-smith-pratt-institute-libraries/ |website=Hyperallergic |access-date=14 March 2021 |date=23 March 2019}}</ref>

== Academic study ==
In 2022, Smith's life and work became the subjects of ''The Queen of Wands: The Story of Pamela Colman Smith, the Artist Behind the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck'', an illustrated biography by Cat Willett.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Willett|first=Cat|date=September 13, 2022|title=''The Queen of Wands: The Story of Pamela Colman Smith, the Artist Behind the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck''|url=https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/cat-willett/the-queen-of-wands/9780762475681/?lens=running-press|publisher=[[Running Press]]|isbn=978-0-7624-7568-1 }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite journal | url=http://www.manteia-online.dk/wst-ipcs/wst-ipcs.pdf | title=The Early Waite–Smith Tarot Editions | date=July 2005 | access-date=2012-03-31 | last=Jensen | first=K. Frank | journal=The Playing Card: Journal of the International Playing Card Society | volume=34 | issue=1 |pages=26–50 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721004631/http://www.manteia-online.dk/wst-ipcs/wst-ipcs.pdf | archive-date=21 July 2006 }}
* {{Cite book|title=The Artwork & Times of Pamela Colman Smith|last=Kaplan|first=Stuart R.|publisher=U.S. Game Systems|year=2009|location=Stamford, Connecticut}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kaplan |first1=Stuart R. |title=Pamela Colman Smith: The Untold Story |date=2018 |publisher=U.S. Game Systems |location=Stamford, Connecticut |isbn=9781572819122 }}
* {{Cite book|title=Modernism and the feminine voice: O'Keeffe and the women of the Stieglitz circle|last=Pyne|first=Kathleen|publisher=University of California Press|year=2007|isbn=9780520241909|location=Berkeley|quote=|url=https://archive.org/details/modernismfeminin0000pyne/page/59}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Pamela Colman Smith}}
{{Wikisource author}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120217005541/http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/awia/gallery/smith.html American Women in the Arts]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140419064847/http://www.brynmawr.edu/Library/speccoll/guides/smith.shtml Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections]
* [https://archive.today/20121220003006/http://home.comcast.net/~pamela-c-smith/home.html Biographical information]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=43206| name=Pamela Colman Smith}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Pamela Colman Smith}}
* {{LCAuth|nr90026060|Pamela Colman Smith|7|ue}}
* Works by Pamela Colman Smith as part of the [https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/collections/ms35tg81f?locale=en Cuala Press Collection] at [[Library of Trinity College Dublin|Trinity College Dublin Library]]. 

{{New Woman (late 19th century)}}
{{Occult tarot}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Pamela Colman}}
[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:1951 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from the City of Westminster]]
[[Category:Artists from Manchester]]
[[Category:American occultists]]
[[Category:British occultists]]
[[Category:Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]]
[[Category:People associated with the tarot]]
[[Category:American women illustrators]]
[[Category:American illustrators]]
[[Category:British illustrators]]
[[Category:American graphic designers]]
[[Category:British graphic designers]]
[[Category:American women graphic designers]]
[[Category:British women graphic designers]]
[[Category:American women writers]]
[[Category:British women writers]]
[[Category:People from Pimlico]]
[[Category:Pratt Institute alumni]]
[[Category:Burials in Cornwall]]
[[Category:English expatriates in the United States]]
[[Category:Symbolist artists]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:19th-century British women writers]]
[[Category:19th-century American women artists]]
[[Category:19th-century British women artists]]