Edith Harrison, Jacksonville. Oklawaha Steamer, 1954, oil on canvas, 22 by 28 inches.
In 1927 Edith Smith Harrison was one of the artists present in Orlando for the organizational meeting of the Florida Federation of Art. During the Depression she worked for the Florida Federal Art Project. The Gainesville Sun reviewed her work at the Florida Federation of Art annual circuit, appearing in Gainesville in February 1931, “One of the most interesting pictures in the entire exhibition is the winner of the watercolor prize, ‘Florida Water Oak’ by Edith Smith Harrison, of the Fine Arts Society of Jacksonville. Here is the modern in art expressed in a difficult medium. The picture is exceedingly decorative and immediately attracts the attention of the patron. It combines rare, pure coloring with almost perfect composition and yet escapes stiffness. There is depth to the background and beauty withal.” The Federal project sponsored a traveling exhibit of her work through the state in 1937.
After her death in 1963, and as part of American Art Week, the Florida Federation of Art sponsored a memorial exhibition of her work at Snyder Memorial Methodist Church in Jacksonville, November 1 to November 7, 1963. The notice for the memorial carried the following biography. “Mrs. Harrison is a Modernist, having studied at the beginning of the modern influence under modern masters at Cooper Union. She was the first Floridian to exhibit a modern canvas in a Florida show, when she went to Orlando, Florida to help organize the Florida Federation of Art. Mrs. Harrison’s style was developed after serious study and experimenting in various schools of painting. Her inquiries into the field of abstraction, and her search for solid forms and subtle color have made of her a forceful painter. Critics have said of her drawing that it has a certain masculine vitality.
The colors she uses are the cadmiums, viridian or emerald green, and ultramarine blue, black and white. In some of her canvasses, she uses the earth colors. Always her palette reflects the deep seriousness of her mood and through the canvas may seem somber, it is never gloomy. There is always a briskness of craftsmanship that discounts any suspicion of weak melancholy. An eminent critic has said of her work, ‘that the novice may find her work gloomy in the same way that the untrained ear often misinterprets the deep utterances of Beethoven.’ Her inspiration is derived from her surroundings. Her life spent in Florida has made of her, essentially, a painter of the Florida scene. Her subjects include cypress swamps, river front life and Negro shanties and show that she has an intimate understanding and her own way of developing them. Human interest scenes of humor and pathos go hand in hand, neither being over emphasized.” Five of Harrison’s paintings were shown in this memorial exhibit. Ochlawaha River-1920; St. Augustine Roofs, Grumbacker Award, 1947, circulated, United States and Canada; Eventide, best in state show, 1937; Old St. Augustine Church, 1950; Still Life, 1958.
Born: August 3, 1879, Jacksonville.
Died: 1963, Jacksonville.
Education: Cooper Institute, New York; Art Students League, NYC; Haley Lever; R. Moffett.
Membership: Florida Federation of Art; Fine Art Society of Jacksonville, charter member; St. Augustine Arts Club; Southern States Art League; Provincetown Art Association; Boston Society of Independent Artists; Jacksonville Art Museum.
Exhibits: Fine Art Society of Jacksonville; Students’ Art Club, Exhibition of Florida Art, Tampa Public Library, May 2- May 9, 1922, A Cypress Pond, Sunlight and Shadow, Sunset on Lake Eustis; Students’ Art Club, 2nd Annual Exhibit of Florida Art, Tampa Museum of Art, City Hall, March 12- 19, 1923, Mountains at Woodstock-New York, Provincetown Docks, Florida Breakers, Pond at Sunset, The Lonesome Pine, Begonia Vine on Spanish House, Fishwier Creek, Stream at Woodstock-N.Y.; Federal Art Gallery, Jacksonville, Fine Art Club of Jacksonville, December 1923, A Florida Creek, The Last Rays, Our Wild Hyacinth, Foot of Main Street, Evening in the Woods, Fishweir Creek, A Rainy Evening, The Last Rays; Jacksonville, December 1923, at the home of artist Myrtle Reeves, Belvedere Avenue, The Last Rays, Our Wild Hyacinth, A Florida Creek, Zinnias, Landscape, Foot of Main Street, Sycamores, Lonesome Pine, Evening in the Woods, The Sycamore, Fishweir Creek, Florida Landscape, A Rainy Evening; Tampa Art Institute 3rd Annual, City Hall, March 26, 1924; Jacksonville Woman’s Club, May 1924, Swimming Hole; Tampa Art Institute, purchase prize, 1924; Jacksonville Woman’s Club and Fine Arts Society of Jacksonville, December 1925; Tampa Art Institute, best landscape, 1927; Florida Federation of Art, 2nd Annual 1929, Jacksonville Beach Dunes, A House on the Dunes, Florida Zinnias; Florida Federation of Art, Annual Circuit, 1930-31, 1st prize, Florida Water Oak; Florida Federation of Art Annual, 1930, 1st prize, watercolor; Fine Arts Society of Jacksonville, January 1930, Chamber of Commerce building, landscape, Sycamores and Cedars; Florida Federation of Art, 1931 Annual, Path to The Sea; Florida Federation of Art, Annual Circuit, Tampa Art Institute, Municipal Auditorium, Tampa, January 1931, best watercolor, Florida Water Oak, Florida Lilies; Florida Federation of Art, best painting any medium, 1934; Federal Art Project, Florida State Traveling Exhibit, 1937, watercolors, including, Old Church-St. Augustine, Cyprus #2, Still LIfe, Still Life #2, Study in Color Arrangement, Neighbors House, Camp Near Everglades, River Shack; St. Augustine Arts Club, January 1938; St. Augustine Arts Club, February 1939; American Association of University Women, YWCA, Jacksonville, March 1945, watercolors, St. Augustine, View of Jacksonville from McCoy’s Creek; Arts Exhibition Club of Jacksonville, National Art Week, November 6, 1945, Armed Forces Center, West Forsyth Street; St. Augustine Arts Club, February 1946, News (Negroes chatting over a back fence); St. Augustine Arts Club, March 1947, Old St. Augustine, Shore Scene; St. Augustine Arts Club, January 1948, still life, Tropical Fruit, Erosion; Jacksonville Art Museum Annual, 1956, 3rd prize, landscape, The Chimney; At Rockefeller Center, New York City.
