Lionel Percy Smythe (September 4, 1839 - July 1918) was a British etcher and artist. Born in London and the illegitimate son of Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, Smythe was educated in England and France before attending the Heatherley School of Fine Art where he studied art. He painted in both watercolors and oils and created genre and maritime scenes, rural landscapes, and paintings of people and animals, becoming associated with the Idyllists. Smythe began exhibiting his art in 1863 in an exhibition at the Royal Academy. In 1879, Smythe and his wife Alice moved to Normandy (where Smythe had spent a large part of his childhood) and lived there until 1882 when their Napoleonic fortress flooded. They then moved inland. He and Alice had three children.