Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith (1878-1951) was the British illustrator and artist responsible for the iconography of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot (1909) — the most influential tarot deck of the 20th century. For decades her enormous artistic contribution was forgotten in favour of the masculine occultist A.E. Waite; today (since around 2000) her foundational role is finally recognised.
Biography
Pamela "Pixie" Colman Smith was born in Middlesex, England, in 1878, daughter of an American merchant family. She lived between England, USA and Jamaica during her childhood, exposing her to varied cultural influences. She studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and at Slade School of Fine Art in London. From very young she developed visual artistic talent of remarkable originality, with strong sense of vivid colour and innovative composition.
In London she joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in 1901 — the most prestigious British esoteric society of the time, where she met A.E. Waite, Aleister Crowley, W.B. Yeats and other notable occultists. Her connection with Waite was particularly significant: in 1909, Waite commissioned Pamela to illustrate the entire deck of 78 cards based on his own occultist vision. Pamela worked intensively for several months on the project; the result was published the same year by the Rider company as Rider-Waite tarot.
Revolutionary contribution
The truly revolutionary contribution of Pamela was the illustration of the 56 minor arcana: while previous tarot decks (Marseille pattern) showed only objects (X cups, X swords, etc.), Pamela painted complete figurative scenes on every minor arcanum. The 5 of Cups shows hooded figure looking at three spilled cups. The 8 of Swords shows blindfolded woman tied with swords around. The 10 of Wands shows man bent under load of ten heavy sticks. Each scene narrates an archetypal situation that visually shows the meaning of the card.
This visual narrative completely democratised the tarot reading: a beginner can now see the meaning of a card and intuit it almost like comic, before even reading the manual. Practically all subsequent tarot decks (Druids, Witches, Mythical, Universal Marseille modern, hundreds of contemporary decks) base their illustrations of minor arcana on Pamela's visual templates. Her artistic-symbolic contribution is incalculable — the Rider-Waite-Smith is the second most printed deck in history after the standard French deck.
Forgotten and recovered legacy
Despite the enormity of her contribution, Pamela was very poorly recognised in life: A.E. Waite paid her only a small one-off fee, with no future copyright — a common abuse of a fixed financial agreement that was usual at the time, especially for women artists. The deck always was credited as "Rider-Waite", omitting Smith. Pamela continued her artistic-illustrative career, suffered Catholic religious conversion, retired to live in Cornwall — and died in complete poverty in 1951.
Recovery from the year 2000: tarot historians and feminists fought decades to recognise her foundational contribution. Today most modern editions speak of "Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot" or "Smith-Waite Tarot", recovering Pamela's name. Some completely renamed editions ("Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative Tarot" of 2009 by US Games). Today, when you hold the Rider-Waite tarot in your hands, recognise that the visual genius of those cards is fundamentally Pamela Colman Smith's, not just Waite's.
Also known as
- Pixie Smith
- P.C.S.
- PCS (her artist initials)