Pamela Colman-Smith (1878-1951).
Written and compiled by George Knowles
Pamela Colman-Smith (affectionally known as Pixie) was a little known artist, illustrator and writer, and while most of her work has been regulated to obscurity, her lasting legacy was the design and illustration of the 20th century’s most popular and best selling tarot deck, ‘The original Rider-Waite Tarot Deck’ (1909). The deck was commissioned under the direction of author and writer: Arthur Edward Waite.
Pamela was born in England on the 16th February 1878, at 28 Belgrave Rd in Pimlico, Middlesex. She was the daughter of an American merchant from Brooklyn, Charles Edward Smith and his Jamaican wife Corinne Colman, hence the hyphenated surname Colman-Smith. Her parents were followers of the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg, and both had artistic and literary families. Due to her father’s job as an auditor for the West India Improvement Company, the family often moved spending time in London, Kingston in Jamaica and Brooklyn, New York.
Pamela’s mother died when she was just 10 years old, and often separated from her father due to his work, she was taken under the wing of the Lyceum Theatre group in London led by Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. Her early teens years spent travelling around the country with the theatre group, did much to influence her later art work. By 1893, Pamela had moved to Brooklyn to be with her father, where at the aged of 15, she enrolled at the relatively new ‘Pratt Institute’ and studied art under the noted artist teacher Arthur Wesley Dow. She graduated four years later.
The Pratt Institute opened on the 17th October 1887
In June of 1899, Pamela returned to London, England and set about making a name for herself as a writer and illustrator. Her first published works were illustrated books based on Jamaican folk tales, including: Annancy Stories (1902), a story about the traditional African folk figure, Anansi the Spider. As a published writer and artist, Pamela gained access to the artistic and literary circles of London, and was introduced to the poet William Butler Yeats. In 1903, while illustrating some of his work, Yeats introduced her into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, just as the order was begining to braking up. It was here she first came into contact with Arthur Edward Waite.
Shortly after her initiation into the Golden Dawn, the Order broke up into factions, those who remained loyal to Mathers formed the “Order of the Alpha et Omega Temple”, while Waite took over as the head of the original Isis-Urania Temple. Many of the remaining Golden Dawn members, including Pamela, stayed with Waite’s group, now called the ‘Order of the Independent and Rectified Rite’. By this time Waite had been working on a new tarot deck, which he asked Pamela to design and illustrate. Under his direction and working together, the deck was published in December 1909, and soon became very popular.
After the end of the first World War (1914-18), Pamela received an inheritance, which enabled her to rent a house called The Lizard in Cornwall, an area popular with artists. She remained there with a long time friend Mrs Nora Lake until 1939, before moving together to 2 Bencoolen House, in Bude Cornwall, were she died on the 18th September, 1951.
Pamela Colman-Smith during her lifetime was a women who didn’t seek notoriety, nor did she seek fame, all she wanted was to be recognised for her talents as an artist. She never married. She had no known heirs or family except for the elderly long time female friend and companion who had shared her life for the past 40 years. When she died on the 18th September 1951, Pamela was penniless and her life’s work obscure. There was no funeral procession to honour her life and no memorial service to evaluate the impact her work would have upon future generations. Her gravesite, if one exists, remains unknown.
She died disappointed that her paintings and writings had failed to achieve success, yet she never stopped believing in herself. After her demise, all of her personal effects were sold at auction, her books, manuscripts, prayer books, paintings, drawings, furniture, and even her personal letters were sold to satisfy her debts. Despite her last wishes, her long time companion was deprived of any inheritance and everything went to strangers who wouldn’t appreciate what they had.
Except for a few art exhibitions during her early career, which were met with a small amount of success, much of her life’s work has disappeared. Pamela Colman Smith would have been forgotten, except for the seventy-eight tarot card paintings known as the: Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. She would no doubt be amazed to know, that today through that tarot deck, her work reaches out and touches the hearts and emotions of millions of people.
