Bernard Brussel-Smith (American)

Born 1914, New York City
Died 1989, Bedford Hills, New York

Known almost entirely for his work as a wood engraver, he was also a teacher at various New York institutions and at the National Academy where he became a member in 1952. Brussel-Smith studied at Philadelphia and New York and was introduced to wood engraving at the New School in New York, taught by Fritz Eichenberg, whose fame rests on woodcuts and wood engravings. He worked on color in wood engraving at the famous studio of Stanley Hayter in France - Atelier 17.

During the 1930s and 1940s his work follows the realist trend of the time in depicting the street life of the city. His engravings Shore Leave and Sailor with his Girl are the type of scene also drawn by artists like Clement Halpers, Cecil Bell and Don Freeman and unlike Paul Cadmus, they did not go so far in what they were intimating that the work was censored by certain groups, such as the Navy. Brussel-Smith captured images of trades-people in New York that now would be difficult to see. He also produced a number of small folk-style works would later used as illustrations in a 1947 book of folk songs "Sing of America", published by Tom Scott, Thomas Y. Crowell Company.

He supported himself as a commercial artist.