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Frederick M (Marlett). Bell-Smith's father, John Bell-Smith was a portrait and miniature painter. Frederick studied at the South Kensington Art Schools in London, and in Paris under Courtois, Dupain, and T.A. Harrison. He moved to Montreal in 1866, where he worked as a photographer. Bell-Smith was associated with the founding of the Canadian Society of Artists in 1867. He married and moved to southern Ontario in 1871, where he taught in public schools and later acted as art director at Alma College in St. Thomas, Ontario. He was appointed director of the Toronto Art School in 1889. He painted in Quebec, Maine, and the Rocky Mountains in the 1880's and in 1895 was given the opportunity to paint portraits of the Queen. Two of his portraits of Queen Victoria are in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.
Bell-Smith was a popular and prolific artist. He was especially known for his landscapes of the Rocky Mountains and the Selkirk Range, where he frequently traveled and painted. He became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1886 and the Ontario Society of Artists in 1872. He died in Toronto in 1923.
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