Page:Dictionary of Artists of the English School (1878).djvu/423



SMITH,, architect. He practised at Warwick and in the neighbouring counties in the first quarter of the 18th century. He is said to have rebuilt Warwick Church. He built some good mansions which had the character of being convenient and handsome, but were marked by great sameness. He died in 1730. There is a portrait of him by Winstanley.

SMITH,, landscape painter. Said to have been born in Italy. Painted landscape, and some small domestic subjects. He travelled in the East with Lord Baltimore and made drawings. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1770 a picture of Constantinople, and in 1772 some views in Naples, and in 1773 some sketches on the Thames, his last contribution. Some of his drawings of the ceremonies of the Turkish Court were engraved. He died in London some time before 1780, supposed in 1779.

SMITH,, water-colour painter. He was born June 26, 1820, travelled largely in the pursuit of his art, and attained a very rapid but unfinished manner of execution. He went to Turkey, and in 1835-36 finished a number of sketches at Constantinople, which were lithographed by J. F. Lewis in 1837, and afterwards went to Canada, and published his sketches made in that colony. He died May 13, 1839.

SMITH,, engraver. Was born in London in 1724, and studied the elements of his art there. He then went to Paris for his improvement, and on his return commenced practice in the dot manner. His best works were executed for Alderman Boydell, and were engraved after Tintoretto, Snyders, Salvator Rosa. He travelled on the Continent for his improvement, accompanied by Ryland, and in the latter part of his life was employed by him, and etched for him almost exclusively in the chalk manner. He died in London in 1783, with the reputation of an able artist.

SMITH,, architect. He practised in the City, and built St. Paul's School 1823, and many other buildings in London. He was architect to the Mercers' Company, and built for the Company, 1825, Whittington's College, near Highgate. He was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy, sending, in 1827, with other works, a design for Tottenham Church, and in 1829 a design for the London Corn Exchange. He died in 1869, aged 87.

SMITH,, architect. Was born in 1793, and was an assistant of W. Burn, of Edinburgh, who offered to take him into partnership, which offer he declined. He was architect to the Improvement Scheme of Edinburgh of fifty years ago, and constructed the fine thoroughfare which begins with Castle Terrace and ends with the George IV. Bridge. He also designed the Normal School, which was held up by the Privy Council Committee on Education as the best model of its day. He was the author of a work on cottage architecture, a prize essay of the Highland Society, and he gave many courses of lectures on Architecture at the Society of Arts. He died in Edinburgh, October 1877, aged 84, and was buried in the Warriston Cemetery.

SMITH,, history painter. Was born in London in 1802. He was brought up as an upholsterer, but having a great talent for art, on coming of age he turned to it as a profession. He entered the schools of the Academy, subsisted by the sale of his drawings and by teaching, and in 1829 gained the gold medal for his original painting, 'Venus Entreating Vulcan to Forge Arms for Æneas;' and the following year he was sent to Rome as the travelling student of the Academy. He returned home at the end of 1833, and resumed the practice of his profession, but he met with little encouragement, his health failed, and he died from rupture of a blood vessel, October 15, 1838. He was of much promise, a good colourist, a vigorous draftsman and painter. There is a painting by him in the South Kensington Museum.

SMITH,, landscape painter (known as 'Smith of Chichester'). His father was a baker, and afterwards a cooper in the South of England, but also exercised the functions of a general Baptist minister. He was born in Chichester in 1714, and, with his brothers, studied art in the surrounding scenery, chiefly painting rural subjects, and compositions of a pastoral class. His works were pleasing, well coloured, with a tendency to blackness, but mere imitations of Claude and Poussin. In his day they were lauded beyond their merits, fashion placed him in the front rank, poets apostrophised him, and the Society of Arts awarded him in 1760 then first premium in competition with Richard Wilson. His name lives in the works of Woollett, Elliot, Peak, and others, whom it was his fortune to have as the engravers of his works. Jointly with his brother