John Smith (engraver) explained
John Smith was an English mezzotint engraver and print seller. Closely associated with the portrait painter Godfrey Kneller, Smith was one of leading exponents of the mezzotint medium during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was regarded among first English-born artists to receive international recognition, along the younger painter William Hogarth.
Life
Smith was born in Daventry, Northamptonshire, about 1652. He was articled to a painter named Tillet in London, and studied mezzotint engraving under Isaac Beckett and Jan van der Vaart. Smith became the favourite engraver of Sir Godfrey Kneller, whose paintings he extensively reproduced, and in whose house he is said to have lived for some time.
At the end of his career, Smith retired to Northamptonshire, where he died on 17 January 1742 at age 90. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's, Northampton church, where there was a tablet to his memory and that of his wife Sarah, who died in 1717.
Works
Smith created approximately 500 plates; nearly 300 of these plates were portraits of notable men and women of the period between the reigns of Charles II and George II. Smith used pictures from artists such as Peter Lely, Godfrey Kneller, Willem Wissing, Michael Dahl, John Riley, John Closterman, Edward Gibson, and Thomas Murray. The rest of Smith's plates have sacred, mythological, and genre subjects after Titian, Correggio, Parmigianino, Carlo Maratti, Godfried Schalcken, Egbert van Heemskerck, Marcellus Laroon and others. Most of Smith's early plates had been published by the renowned print seller Edward Cooper. In 1700, Smith became a printseller at the Lyon and Crown in Covent Garden and started publishing his own works. Smith also reissued many plates by Beckett, Bernard Lens, Williams, and others, retouching them and erasing the original engravers' names. Smith's latest print appears to have been the portrait of the young Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, after Joseph Highmore, dated 1729.
The bulk of Smith's copperplates eventually came into the hands of publisher John Boydell, who reprinted them in large numbers.
In 1696, Kneller painted a portrait of Smith holding a Kneller engraving and gave it to him. In 1716, Smith created a print from that portrait. Samuel Freeman later engraved that image for Horace Walpole's Anecdotes. Kneller's portrait of Smith is part of the collection of the Tate Gallery, London.[1]
Further reading
- Book: Bénézit, Emmanuel. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Gründ. 2006. 2-7000-3082-6. 12. Paris. 1372. first published in French in 1911–1923. the Internet Archive.
- Book: Bryan, Michael. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. Macmillan. 1903–1905. 5. New York. 93–94. 1041637252. Michael Bryan (art historian). the Internet Archive.
- Book: Clayton, Timothy. The English Print, 1688–1802. Yale University Press. 1997. 0-300-06650-3. London, New Haven.
- Book: Davenport, Cyril. Mezzotints. Methuen and Co.. 1904. London. 1049687052. the Internet Archive.
- Book: Godfrey, Richard T.. Printmaking in Britain: A General History from Its Beginnings to the Present Day. New York University Press. 1978. 0-8147-2973-8. New York. 29–30. 1151065422. registration. the Internet Archive.
- Griffiths. Antony. Antony Griffiths. September 1989. Early Mezzotint Publishing in England. I: John Smith. Print Quarterly. 6. 3. 243–257. 41824523.
- Book: Griffiths, Anthony. Prints and Printmaking: an Introduction to the History and Techniques. University of California Press. 1996. 0-520-20714-9. Berkeley, Los Angeles. 85. 1036831840. registration. the Internet Archive.
- Encyclopedia: Griffiths. Antony. Smith, John. 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Matthew. H. C. G.. Harrison. amp. Brian. Oxford University Press. Oxford, New York. 202–203. the Internet Archive. 51. 0-19-861401-2. 1035757378.
- Book: Hind, Arthur M.. Arthur Mayger Hind. 1963. A History of Engraving & Etching from the 15th Century to the Year 1914. registration. 3rd, fully rev.. New York. Dover. 1035610203. the Internet Archive.
- Encyclopedia: Smith, John (i). 1996. The Dictionary of Art. Grove's Dictionaries. New York. Jeffree. Richard. Turner. Jane. 28. 881–882. 1-884446-00-0. 1033666104. the Internet Archive.
- Smith, John (1652?-1742). O'Donoghue. Freeman Marius. 53. 78.
- Book: Redgrave, Samuel. Samuel Redgrave. A Dictionary of Artists of the English School. George Bell. 1878. 2nd. London. 403. 1043009709. the Internet Archive.
- Book: Salaman, Malcolm C.. Malcolm C. Salaman. 1906. The Old Engravers of England in Their Relation to Contemporary Life and Art (1540-1800). London et al.. Cassell and Co.. 1049965266. the Internet Archive.
- Book: Salaman, Malcolm C.. Old English Mezzotints. The Studio. 1910. Holme. Charles. London et al.. 1049974212. the Internet Archive.
- Book: Smith, John Chaloner. British Mezzotinto Portraits. H. Sotheran. 1878–1884. London. pt. 3, pp. 1131–1241. John Chaloner Smith. the Internet Archive. 679810041.
- Book: Vertue, George. A Catalogue of Engravers. Thomas Kirgate. 1765. Walpole. Horace. Horace Walpole. Strawberry Hill. 116–118. 1039533429. George Vertue. the Internet Archive.
- Vertue. George. 1934. The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (III). The Walpole Society. 22. whole issue. i40086509.
- Encyclopedia: Smith, John. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. E. A. Seemann. Leipzig. 1937. Vollmer. Hans. 31. 172. de.
- Book: Walpole, Horace. Horace Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting in England. H. G. Bohn. 1849. 3. London. 961–963. the Internet Archive.
- Attribution
Notes and References
- See picture at the Tate.