Hobbe Smith, born in Friesland, moved to Amsterdam in 1873 with his parents. There he is trained as a lithographer at a stone printing company and in the evenings he takes drawing lessons at the arts and crafts school Quellinus. His talent for drawing is discovered and thanks to a wealthy patron and a scholarship from Queen Wilhelmina, he can follow an education at the State Academy in the capital and after this, with a subsidy from King Willem III, at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, where he is taught by the well-known painter Charles Verlat
Hobbe Smith painted in a loose, impressionistic touch and he tackles everything; figure paintings, nudes, still lifes, interiors, the activity in the Amsterdam and Antwerp harbours, landscapes, windmills, history paintings and sea and town views. He becomes a member of Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam and Pulchri Studio in The Hague. There he meets Jacob Maris, whom he admires and with whom he feels very close.
Hobbe becomes a valued and successful painter and moves into a house with a studio at Sarphatipark. He is then already married (1897) to Catharina Daalmeyer. In that period, until just before the turn of the century, he makes sensual and mysterious female nudes and portraits. He also paints many city and harbor views - he can often be found on the water with his boat - and commissioned portraits. In 1902 he is given a solo exhibition at Pulchri Studio in The Hague, just before his fortieth birthday.
In 1913, he receives a special assignment from the 'First Dutch Exhibition in the Shipping Area' for the celebration of a hundred years of monarchy. Hobbe Smith makes 12 enormous paintings, together more than 150 m2, inspired by the IJ, which are exhibited in the Tolhuis pavilion. The pavilion is well visited and interest in his work is now also coming from abroad.
His working life comes to an end at the age of 64. The Frisian Amsterdammer goes blind and has to stop painting. Fortunately, there is still appreciation and demand for his work and he remains financially independent.