Walter Granville-Smith was an illustrator and painter who was born in South Granville, New York on January 28, 1870. He is notable for producing the first colored illustration that appeared in the United States. Granville-Smith and his wife, Jessie, had a daughter Jesse and sons, Walter. and Edward. Granville-Smith died on December 7, 1938 at his daughter's home in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York.
Granville-Smith was a National Academician in 1915 with the National Academy of Design and served as president of the Salmagundi Club in New York from 1924 to 1926. His works are part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution (Grey Day), Butler Institute of American Art (The Willow), Toledo Museum of Art (South Haven Mill), the Currier Museum of Art (Truth}, the Salmagundi Club, the Lotos Club, the Fencers Club of New York and the Art Club of Philadelphia. Many of his works can be seen at the Athenaeum website.
Granville-Smith attended the Newark Academy in Newark, New Jersey. He received his first instruction in painting from David McClure and as a teenager he studied under Walter Satterlee. He then studied at the Art Students League of New York under Willard Metcalf and James Carroll Beckwith.
Granville-Smith started his career as a magazine illustrator. His illustrations appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Metropolitan Magazine, and Collier's. He was noted for his pioneering work in color. As an illustrator, he produced the first colored illustration to appear in the United States, for Gertrude Atherton’s A Christmas Witch, in the January 1893 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book
In 1897 Granville-Smith toured Europe, visiting Holland, Belgium, and France. In Paris he studied at the Academie Julien. After 1900 Granville-Smith focused on landscape painting. He acquired a summer home in Bellport, New York in 1908, and this area became a frequent subject of his landscape and seascape paintings. His New York Studio was located at 96 Fifth Avenue. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.