{{short description|Scottish-born painter (1688–1751)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox artist | name = John Smibert | image = 1739 JohnSmibert self portrait BermudaGroup detail Yale.png | caption = {{circa|1739}} self-portrait | birth_date = 24 March 1688 | birth_place = Edinburgh, Scotland | death_date = 2 April 1751 (aged 63) | death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, British America | nationality = | education = | field = Portrait painting | works = }}
'''John Smibert''' (24 March 1688 – 2 April 1751) was a Scottish-born painter who specialised in portrait painting and was the first academically trained artist to work in British America.{{sfn|Saunders|1996|p=869}}{{sfn|O'Donnell|2017|p=18}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mangold|first=Max|url=https://archive.org/details/dudenaussprachew0000unse_c8b4_6|title=Duden Aussprachewörterbuch: Wörterbuch der deutschen Standardaussprache|publisher=Dudenverlag|year=1990|isbn=3-411-00916-0|edition=2nd|location=Mannheim, Wien, Zürich|page=[https://archive.org/details/dudenaussprachew0000unse_c8b4_6/page/n9/mode/1up 667]|language=de|oclc=1244724110|display-editors=etal|url-access=registration|via=the Internet Archive}}</ref>
==Career== Smibert was born in Edinburgh on 24 March 1688, the second youngest of six children of Alison and John Smibert, a litster, or wool dyer.{{sfn|Saunders|2004|p=1001}} From 1702 to 1709, he was apprenticed to a house painter and plasterer in Edinburgh. On moving to London in 1709<ref name="Saunders">Richard H. Saunders, John Smibert: Colonial America's first portrait painter, Yale University Press, 1995.</ref> he worked as a coach painter and copyist.
1713-1716, he studied under Godfrey Kneller at the Great Queen Street Academy, then returned to Edinburgh, seeking work as portraitist.<ref name="Saunders" /> Smibert travelled to Italy from 1719 to 1722 to copy old masters, including some in the collection of Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany,<ref>Skinner, Basil (1966), ''Scots in Italy in the 18th Century'', National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, p. 30</ref> and then settled in London where he worked as a portrait painter from 1722 until 1728.<ref name="Saunders" />
Smibert became a member of the Rose and Crown Club and made a sketch for a group portrait of its members, including George Vertue, John Wootton, Thomas Gibson, Bernard Lens III, and others.
Among his London portraits is one of Bishop Berkeley<ref name=DNB00>{{harvnb|Cust|1897|p=405}}</ref> who, in 1728, enticed Smibert to accompany him to America, with the intention of becoming professor of fine arts in the college which Berkeley was planning to found in Bermuda. The college, however, was never established, and Smibert settled in Boston, where he married in 1730.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Smybert, John|volume=25|page=281}}</ref> He lived at the corner of Brattle Street and Queen-Street.<ref>Weekly Rehearsal, Oct. 21, 1734; May 26, 1735</ref><ref>David Kruh. Always something doing: Boston's infamous Scollay Square, rev. ed. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press, 1999; p.34.</ref> He belonged to the Scots Charitable Society of Boston.
[[File:The Bermuda Group Dean Berkeley and his Entourage by John Smibert.jpeg|thumb|250px|''The Bermuda Group (Dean Berkeley and His Entourage)'', begun in 1728, finished 1739. Yale University Art Gallery]] [[Image:1734 Smibert WeeklyRehearsal Boston Oct21.png|thumb|250px|Advertisement for "John Smibert, painter, sells all sorts of colours, dry or ground, with oils and brushes. ... Wholesale or retail at reasonable rates, at his house in Queen-Street, between the Town-House and the orange tree, Boston," 1734]] [[Image:John Smibert grave memorial.jpg|thumb|250px|Plaque at Granary Burying Ground in Boston commemorating Smibert]]
In 1728, he began painting ''Dean George Berkeley and His Entourage'', also called ''The Bermuda Group'', which became one of the most influential New England portraits.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kloss |first=William |title=Masterworks of American Art: Course Guidebook |publisher=The Teaching Company |year=2008 |location=United States |pages=10}}</ref> It was commissioned by John Wainright, a patron of George Berkeley, and depicts the members of the planned expedition to Bermuda. The painting, now in the Yale University Art Gallery, includes Berkeley at the right, Wainwright seated at left, and Smibert standing at the far left.<ref>[https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/21 Yale University Art Gallery]. Retrieved 12 March 2023.</ref>
Smibert painted portraits of Jonathan Edwards and Judge Edmund Quincy (in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston), Mrs Smibert, Peter Faneuil and Governor John Endecott (in the Massachusetts Historical Society), John Lovell (Memorial Hall, Harvard University), and probably one of Sir William Pepperrell; and examples of his works are owned by Harvard and Yale Universities, by Bowdoin College, by the Massachusetts Historical Society, and by the New England Historical and Genealogical Society.<ref name="EB1911"/>
In 1734, Smibert opened a shop where he sold paint, other artist's supplies, and prints. In his studio above the shop, he displayed casts and copies of Old Masters that he had painted in Europe. This collection, which Richard Saunders has termed "America's first art gallery", provided much of the early artistic education for Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, and John Trumbull.<ref name="OAO">''John Smibert'', Oxford Art Online</ref>
Between 1740 and 1742, he served as architect for the original Faneuil Hall, which he designed in the style of an English country market. The hall burned down in 1761 but was restored, and then in 1806 greatly expanded and modified by Charles Bulfinch.
His son Nathaniel was also a painter. Smibert lies in Tomb 62 in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}
==Gallery== <gallery widths="140px" heights="190px" perrow="4"> Image:EdwardNightengale ca1723 byJohnSmibert DallasMuseumArt.jpg|Portrait of Edward Nightengale, ca.1722-1724 File:John Smibert - Benjamin Moreland, High Master of St. Paul's School - Google Art Project.jpg|''Benjamin Morland'', oil on canvas, 1724. Yale Center for British Art thumb|250px|George Berkeley, 1727 File:1729 ElizabethDavenport byJohnSmibert MFABoston.jpeg|''Elizabeth Davenport (Mrs. William Dudley)'', 1729, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. File:Colonel Charles Otway.jpg|''Colonel James Otaway'', oil on canvas, 1724. Royal Sussex Regiment Museum Image:WLA lacma Smibert Scotland portrait of Paul Mascarene.jpg|Paul Mascarene, 1729 (LACMA) <!-- File:Edward Winslow by John Smibert.jpeg|''Edward Winslow'', c. 1730-1731, Yale University Art Gallery. Yale University Art Gallery --> File:SamuelSewall.jpg|''Samuel Sewall'', 1729, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. File:Edward Winslow by John Smibert.jpeg|''Edward Winslow'', c. 1730-1731, Yale University Art Gallery. File:Francis Brinley MET DT53 (cropped).jpg|''Francis Brinley'', c. 1729, Metropolitan Museum of Art. File:1737 EdmundQuincy byJohnSmibert MFABoston (cropped).jpeg|Portrait of Edmund Quincy, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. File:Thomas Hancock portrait (cropped).jpg|1730 portrait of Thomas Hancock in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston File:John Smibert - Sir John Rushout, Bt. - Google Art Project.jpg|Sir John Rushout, 4th Baronet File:John Cotton by Smibert.jpg|The Rev John Cotton 1690-1757 By Smibert File:Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent. 1745-1827 (1920) (14597859800).jpg|Catherine Winthrop Sargent, married 1744 as the second wife of Col. Epes Sargent (soldier), from a portrait by Smybert which is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. File:Malachy Salter.jpg|Malachy Salter, Province House (Nova Scotia)<!--Attributed to Smibert. Date associated with the work is 1758, seven years after Smibert died. Evidently one or both are incorrect.---> </gallery>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== {{commons category|John Smibert}} ;Primary sources * {{cite book|last=Smibert|first=John|date=1969|url=https://archive.org/details/notebookofjohnsm00smib|title=The Notebook of John Smibert|location=Boston|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|oclc=6380|via=the Internet Archive}} * {{cite journal|last=Vertue|first=George|author-link=George Vertue|date=1934|title=The Note-Books of George Vertue Relating to Artists and Collections in England (III)|journal=The Walpole Society|volume=22|at=whole issue|jstor=i40086509}} ;General studies * {{Cite book|last=Foote|first=Henry Wilder|url=https://archive.org/details/johnsmibertpaint0000foot/|title=John Smibert, Painter With a Descriptive Catalogue of Portraits, and Notes on the Work of Nathaniel Smibert|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1950|location=Cambridge|oclc=900850057|url-access=registration|via=the Internet Archive}} * {{cite book|first=Richard H.|last=Saunders|date=1995|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wklq3JItYOgC|title=John Smibert: Colonial America's First Portrait Painter|location=New Haven, London|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-04258-2|oclc=31607421}} ;Additional notes * {{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/31880971|title=Depicting Berkeleyan Idealism: A Study of Two Portraits by John Smibert|last=O'Donnell|first=C. Oliver|date=2017|journal=Word & Image|volume=33|issue=1|pages=18–34|doi=10.1080/02666286.2016.1230698 |via=Academia.edu}} * {{cite journal|first1=Charles|last1=Deane|first2=Augustus T.|last2=Perkins|first3=Oliver|last3=Wendell Holmes|date=1878|title=December Meeting, 1878|journal=Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society|volume=17|pages=380–475|jstor=25079537|postscript=. See pp. 385–399 for A. T. Perkins' reports, "Portraits by Blackburn" and "Portraits by Smibert"}} * {{cite book|last=Rather|first=Susan|date=2016|url=https://archive.org/details/americanschoolar0000rath/|url-access=registration|title=The American School: Artists and Status in the Late-Colonial and Early National Era|location=New Haven, London|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-21461-1|via=the Internet Archive}} * {{Cite book|last=Rebora|first=Carol|url=https://archive.org/details/johnsingletoncop0000unse_e2m5/|title=John Singleton Copley in America|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. N. Abrams|year=1995|isbn=0-87099-744-0|location=New York|type=exhibition catalogue|oclc=1244862408|display-authors=etal|url-access=registration|via=the Internet Archive}} ;Reference works * {{Cite book |last=Bénézit |first=Emmanuel |author-link=Emmanuel Bénézit |title=Benezit Dictionary of Artists |publisher=Gründ |year=2006 |isbn=2-7000-3082-6 |volume=12 |location=Paris |page=[https://archive.org/details/benezitdictionar12bene/page/1349/mode/1up 1349] |orig-year=first published in French in 1911–1923 |via=the Internet Archive}} * {{cite DNB|wstitle=Smibert, John|first=Lionel Henry|last=Cust|author-link=Lionel Henry Cust|volume=52|page=405}} * {{cite encyclopedia|last=Kalfatovic|first=Martin R.|date=1999|title=Smibert, John|url=https://archive.org/details/americannational20garr/page/118/mode/2up|encyclopedia=American National Biography|editor-last=Garraty|editor-first=John Arthur|editor-link=John A. Garraty|editor-last2=Carnes|editor-first2=Marc Christopher|volume=20|pages=118–120|location=Oxford, New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-512799-4|oclc=1028044182|via=the Internet Archive}} * {{Cite encyclopedia|title=Smibert, John|date=1996|encyclopedia=The Dictionary of Art|publisher=Grove's Dictionaries|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofart28turn/page/869/mode/1up|last=Saunders|first=Richard H.|editor-last=Turner|editor-first=Jane|volume=28|pages=869–871|isbn=1-884446-00-0|oclc=1033666104|via=the Internet Archive}} * {{Cite encyclopedia|last=Saunders|first=Richard H.|title=Smibert, John|date=2004|encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|editor-last=Matthew|editor-first=H. C. G.|editor-last2=Harrison|name-list-style=amp|editor-first2=Brian|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, New York|page=1001|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_0198614004/page/1001/mode/1up|via=the Internet Archive|volume=50|isbn=0-19-861400-4|oclc=1035757202}} * {{cite encyclopedia|last=Sizer|first=Theodore|date=1935|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofamer17amer/page/228/mode/2up|title=Smibert, John|editor-last=Malone|editor-first=Dumas|editor-link=Dumas Malone|encyclopedia=Dictionary of American Biography|volume=17|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|pages=228–230|oclc=1042927728|via=the Internet Archive}} * {{cite encyclopedia|editor-link=Hans Vollmer|date=1937|title=Smibert (Smybert), John|editor-last=Vollmer|editor-first=Hans|encyclopedia=Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler|language=de|volume=31|location=Leipzig|publisher=E. A. Seemann|pages=158–159}}
==External links== * {{FadedPage|id=Smibert, John|name=John Smibert|author=yes}} *''[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/82989/rec/60 John Singleton Copley in America],'' a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on John Smibert (see index)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smibert, John}} Category:1688 births Category:1751 deaths Category:18th-century American painters Category:18th-century American male artists Category:American male painters Category:18th-century Scottish painters Category:18th-century Scottish male artists Category:Scottish male painters Category:Painters from Boston Category:People from colonial Boston Category:Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies Category:Painters from Edinburgh Category:Burials at Granary Burying Ground Category:Scottish portrait painters Category:American portrait painters