Sydney Ure Smith

Sydney George Ure Smith OBE (9 January 1887 – 11 October 1949) was an Australian arts publisher and promoter who 'did more than any other Australian to publicize Australian art at home and overseas'.

He was born in London in 1887 and arrived in Australia with his parents later that same year. His father (d. 1919) was manager of the Menzies Hotel, Melbourne then Hotel Australia, Sydney for over 20 years. His parents adopted the form 'Ure Smith': his mother (d. 1931) was born Catherine Ure, but formally their surname remained Smith.

He was educated at Queen's College, Melbourne then at Sydney Grammar School. He studied pencil and ink drawing at the Julian Ashton School of Art 1902–07 then learnt the techniques of etching from Eirene Mort. At age 19 he helped Harry Julius and Albert Collins found the commercial art studio that later became Smith and Julius.

Unlike most of his contemporaries, he seldom submitted his work for publication. He published his own work in limited edition books such as Old Sydney (1911) and Old Colonial By-Ways (1928), prompted by his passion for preserving historic buildings.

He married a fellow art student Viola Austral Quaife (granddaughter of Rev. Barzillai Quaife) in 1909. His second wife was Ethel Bickley.

He died after several years of ill health and was survived by a son from his second marriage, Sydney George 'Sam' Ure Smith (died 19 November 2013) and a daughter, Mrs. R. J. Hemphill. His daughter, Dorothy Olivia Hemphill, died on 15 March, 2009.

Artistic expression to him was never more than a pleasant pastime; his real passion lay in harnessing technology to reproduce the works of others. In 1916 he founded a syndicate with Bertram Stevens and Charles Lloyd Jones to publish Art in Australia, and in the same year he founded the advertising firm Smith and Julius with Harry Julius, specialising in high quality artwork for prestigious clients such as Dunlop and Berlei. They employed such prominent Sydney artists as James Muir Auld, Fred Britton, Frank Burdett, Harold Cazneaux, Albert Collins (who was a director from 1916–51), Roy de Maistre, Adrian Feint, George Frederick Lawrence, Percival Leason, John Passmore, Lloyd Rees, Bill Sparrow and Roland Wakelin. After 1923 he ceased active involvement with the company.

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