John Smith (art historian) explained

John Smith
Birth Date:	1781
Birth Place:	London
Death Date:	1855
Death Place:	Hanwell
Nationality:	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

John Smith (1781–1855) was a 19th-century British art dealer who developed the concept of the catalogue raisonné.

Smith was born in London. He began dealing in art as a framemaker, specializing in wood-carving and gilding.^[1] He became an art dealer and art consultant known for his "reasoned catalog" of painters that he wrote in 8 volumes and sold by subscription to his art clients during the years 1829 to 1837, and to which he added a 9th volume as a supplement in 1842.

Sources

• Volume 1 (1829): Gerard Dou, Pieter van Slingelant, Frans van Mieris the Elder, Willem van Mieris, Adriaen van Ostade, Isaac van Ostade, Philips Wouwerman^[2]
• Volume 2 (1830): Peter Paul Rubens^[3]
• Volume 3 (1831): Anthony van Dyck, David Teniers the Younger^[4]
• Volume 4 (1833): Jan Steen, Gerard ter Borch, Eglon van der Neer, Pieter de Hooch, Gonzales Coques, Gabriel Metsu, Caspar Netscher, Adriaen van der Werff, Nicolaes Maes, Godfried Schalcken^[5]
• Volume 5 (1834): Nicolaes Berchem, Paulus Potter, Adriaen van de Velde, Karel Dujardin, Aelbert Cuyp, Jan van der Heyden^[6]
• Volume 6 (1835): Jacob van Ruysdael, Meindert Hobbema, Jan Both, Andries Both, Jan Wynants, Adam Pynacker, Jan Hackaert, Willem van de Velde, Ludolf Bakhuizen, Jan van Huysum, Rachel Ruysch^[7]
• Volume 7 (1836): Rembrandt^[8]
• Volume 8 (1837): Nicolas Poussin, Claude Lorrain, Jean-Baptiste Greuze^[9]
• Volume 9 – Supplement (1842): Includes corrections to the preceding volumes and new additions^[10]

Smith died in Hanwell. His work was carried on and expanded by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, who published a new update to his catalogue in German starting in 1907, that was later expanded and translated into English by Edward G. Hawke, along with a concordance of catalog numbers.

References

• John Smith in the Dictionary of Art Historians

Notes and References

1. http://www.codart.nl/news/953/ Review of book about Smith
2. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn01smituoft Volume 1
3. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn02smituoft Volume 2
4. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn03smituoft Volume 3
5. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn04smituoft Volume 4
6. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn05smituoft Volume 5
7. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn06smituoft Volume 6
8. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn07smituoft Volume 7
9. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn08smituoft Volume 8
10. https://archive.org/details/catalogueraisonn09smituoft Volume 9