- John Raphael Smith
Infobox Person
name = John Raphael Smith
image_size =
caption = self portrait
birth_date = 1752
birth_place =
death_date = 1812
death_place =
education =
occupation = painter andmezzotint engraver
spouse =
parents =
children =John Raphael Smith (
1752 -March 2 ,1812 ), was an English painter andmezzotint engraver , a son of Thomas Smith ofDerby , thelandscape painter .He was apprenticed to a linen-draper in Derby, and afterwards pursued the same business in London, adding to his income by producing
miniatures . He then turned to engraving and executed his plate of the "Public Ledger," which had great popularity, and was followed by his mezzotints of "Edwin the Minstrel" (a portrait ofThomas Haden ), afterWright of Derby , and "Mercury Inventing the Lyre," after Barry.He reproduced some forty works of Reynolds, some of which ranked among the masterpieces ofmezzotint , and he was appointed engraver to thePrince of Wales . Adding to his artistic pursuits an extensive connexion as a print-dealer and publisher, he would soon have acquired wealth had it not been for his dissipated habits. He was a boon companion ofGeorge Morland , whose figure-pieces he excellently mezzotinted.Smith was the teacher of
J. M. W. Turner .He painted subject-pictures such as the "Unsuspecting Maid," "Inattention" and the "Moralist," exhibiting in the
Royal Academy from 1779 to 1790. Upon the decline of his business as a printseller he made a tour through the north and midland counties of England, producing much hasty and indifferent work, and settled inDoncaster , where he died.As a mezzotint engraver Smith occupies the very highest rank. His prints are delicate, excellent in drawing and finely expressive of colour. His small full-lengths in crayons and his portraits of Fox, Horne Tooke, Sir Francis Burdett and the group of the
duke of Devonshire and family support his claims as a successful draughtsman and painter. He had a very thorough knowledge of the principles and history of art, and was a brilliant conversationalist.----References
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