Robert Borlase Smart RBA ROI RBC RWA SMA, generally known as Borlase Smart (11 February 1881, Kingsbridge, Devon – 3 November 1947, St Ives, Cornwall)[1] worked as an art editor and critic on the Western Morning News / Illustrated Western Weekly News from 1901 to 1913,[2] but is principally known as an artist, in which capacity he became a founding member of the St Ives School during the years following his return from the First World War.
Following this recognition of his abilities he decided to become a professional artist and he gave up his post as a journalist and moved to St Ives, Cornwall in 1913 to study seascape painting.
During the conflict he made charcoal and wash drawings which illustrated the conditions that the soldiers endured at the front and the destruction of towns and villages on the Somme, at Arras and at Ypres.
With an abundance of energy and enthusiasm, Smart began, in the three decades that followed, to gain a reputation as a fine painter and an organiser and promoter of the St Ives artistic community.
[1] He was considered a man of vision and highly regarded within the West Cornwall art community as someone with a readiness to accept and encourage emerging talent.