Born in Halifax, Smith studied at Manchester College of Technology (1901–5) and the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1905–8). He moved to France late in 1908 and eventually settled in Paris, exhibiting several works at the Salon des Indépendants. These early works show the influence of Fauvism and of Matisse, whose studio he attended briefly in 1910.
During the 1920s he gained an increasing self-confidence that led to the evolution of his mature style. Smith continued to work from traditional subjects, but with marked variations in his palette and use of paint. He spent the late 1920s and 1930s in France and produced many freely painted nudes, still-lifes, portraits and landscapes.
The fluidity of Smith's later work brought him considerable success and he regularly exhibited in London, and twice represented Britain at the Venice Biennale (1938 and 1950). The artist was knighted in 1954.
