The family's male line in Australia extends back to Peter's grandfather Thomas Smith (1830–87), who emigrated from Darnick, Roxburghshire, in the Scottish Borders to the Colony of Victoria during the early days of the Victorian gold rush in 1854.

In order to please his father, Peter entered the Royal Australian Naval College in 1926, but dropped out three years later to become a jackaroo near Hay by the Murrumbidgee River.

Apart from his teachers and Drysdale, Amedeo Modigliani, Paul Nash, Henri Rousseau, Maurice Utrillo, Christopher Wood and surrealism impacted what would become Purves Smith's highly personal style.

[5] In 1939, art critic Gino Nibbi said "Purves Smith seems one of the most qualified at the present time to give some allegorical interpretations of the virgin appearance of the Australian landscape".

[2][7] According to art historian Sasha Grishin, Purves Smith's "apocalyptic" depictions of Australia's desolate interior convey a fear of vast space, and employ a "recognizable Australian setting to express both personal, as well as broader social anxieties" in the lead up to war.

During this time, Purves Smith was vacationing in California with his mother; the outbreak of war caused him to make a detour to the Grand Canyon, about which he wrote to Maisie in a characteristically facetious tone: "If one is to die gloriously one might as well see a few things first".

What remains of Purves Smith's letters describes the day-to-day aspects of life in the jungle, including dashes into the African wilds and his growing revulsion at body odour and the sight of sweat.

[11] Detailed histories of the West Africa Campaign indicate his company travelled along the Takoradi supply route, which was established in August 1940 as a means of bypassing Vichy French territories to reach upper Egypt.

[16] Despite his small oeuvre of less than 100 paintings and posthumous descent into relative obscurity,[5] Purves Smith emerged as a celebrated artist—influencing many of his contemporaries—and has been recognised as "the first of the young modern artists to look inquiringly at the Australianness of country life".

[7] His use of surreal elements, colloquial themes and at times biting satire set precedent for the work of the Melbourne-based Angry Penguins in the mid to late 1940s.

[5][18] A touring exhibition of his work commenced in 2001 following the publication of Mary Eagle's biography Peter Purves Smith: A Painter in Peace and War.

[25] Purves Smith is also represented in the National Gallery of Victoria's Joseph Brown Collection, a survey of Australian art from its colonial beginnings to contemporary times.

Of the collection, former Christie's director of art sales Jon Dwyer said "There are many iconic pictures, including von Guerards, some great Streetons and McCubbins - and arguably the best work Peter Purves Smith ever painted, which is my favourite.