Abstract watercolor / gouache on paper showing four cubist figures, by early abstract expressionist Charles William Smith. Signed lower right C. W. Smith. Born in Augusta County, Virginia, Smith spent time as a child in Waynesboro at the home of his grandfather, a portrait painter. Smith was educated at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC, and at Yale. His studies at Yale interrupted by WW 1, he served with distinction as first lieutenant, remaining in Paris after the war to study with French Impressionist / Modernist Rene Ligeron.After receiving early acclaim for his representational printmaking, including several books of his prints, in the late 1930s Smith began exploring abstraction. His new direction dismayed some critics and was admired by others, including the Museum of Modern Art, which in 1941 acquired five of his works for their permanent collection. Smith taught at Bennington College and at the University of Virginia, where he chaired the Art department. He exhibited widely and his works are held in many public and private collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Baltimore Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Art, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Hollins College, Guggenheim Museum, Honolulu Art Museum, Huntington Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.; Newcomb College, New York Public Library, Newark Museum, Phillips Collection, Portland Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Art, Springfield, OH; Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, MA; Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; William and Mary College, Richmond Campus, and Yale University Art Gallery.