Francis Smith

Born in Portugal but of English descent, Francisco Smith arrived in Paris in 1907. Once there he married the sculptor Yvonne Mortier, adopted the French nationality and simplified his name to Francis Smith.

He rarely returned to his country of origin, although it populates a great part of his work. Jorge Barradas commented that Smith loved Portugal and that, when he moved abroad, his eyes took with them the nostalgia for Portuguese light and color, indelibly marked on his retina and stirred by the Parisian mist.

“Even in the views of Paris Francisco Smith allows a Portuguese tone to flow, involuntarily but inevitably, which is the secret and spring of his art”, wrote Urbano Tavares Rodrigues as well, in 1951.