John Raphael Smith was baptised at
St Alkmund's Church in
Derby, England, on 25 May 1751. He was named after the
High Renaissance artist
Raphael. His mother was Hannah Silvester and his father was the painter
Thomas Smith. He was able to secure an apprentice to a linen-draper in the city after a brief education at
Derby School. His elder brother, Thomas Corregio Smith (1743–1811), was also a painter. Determined to pursue a print-making business in London, in 1767 he moved to the capital, making additional income from production of
miniatures. Almost immediately he met Ann Darlow, he proposed and they were married on 20 May 1768 at the Chapel of Savoy. Then he turned to engraving: his most successful mezzotint of
Pascal Poali, after
Henry Benbridge launched his career. He executed his plate of the
Public Ledger, which proved most popular, and was followed by his mezzotints of
Edwin the Minstrel (a portrait of
Thomas Haden) after
Wright of Derby, and
Mercury Inventing the Lyre, after
Barry. , London He reproduced some forty works of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, some of which ranked among the masterpieces of
mezzotint. Notable among these feats was one of
Mr Banks, after a portrait by the Royal Academician
Benjamin West that was exhibited at the
Society of Artists in 1773. In 1778, Smith was commissioned to complete a mezzotint engraving by John Milnes following his purchase of a painting and all known engravings of the work of
Joseph Wright of Derby. The painting was called
The Captive and the engraving was used to make just twenty impressions before it was destroyed. One of these rare engravings is in Smith's home town at the
Derby Museum and Art Gallery. Reynolds painted all Society, but Smith's mezzotints of
Mrs Carnac (1778) and
Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton (1782) are outstanding examples of famous Georgians. Tarleton's reputation as a ruthless cavalry officer in the American campaign was illustrative of Smith's enduring family links to the New World. 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. Other successful pieces followed with
The Weird Sisters after
Henry Fuseli (1785), and a
Widow of an Indian Chief (1789), after
Joseph Wright of Derby. He was a boon companion of
George Morland, whose figure-pieces included mezzotints repository at the British Museum, and frequent exhibitions throughout his career at the Society of Artists. In the intervening periods he showed oils, chalk and pastels at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly, for example his mezzotint of 1785 of the
Credulous Lady and Astrologer. In 1803, he had a special exhibition of oils at the British School in
Berners Street, Piccadilly. Of his complete oeuvres, over 400 works of mezzotint and
stipple, included 120 genre and satirical works about ordinary life.
Ladies in Fashionable Dresses by Bowles portrayed, according to one critic, a group of prostitutes. Smith became a London publisher from 1781, including among his clients the radical writer and artist
William Blake. A prolific mentor of apprentices, he shared plates with at least thirty other London printers. In this group was
J. M. W. Turner,
Charles H. Hodges,
William Ward,
Thomas Girtin and
James Ward, who were among his registered pupils were
William Hilton,
Charles Howard Hodges,
Christiaan Josi,
Samuel William Reynolds,
James and
William Ward (engraver), and
Peter de Wint. As a mezzotint engraver Smith occupies the very highest rank. His prints are delicate, excellent in drawing and finely expressive of colour. The grandchildren were also distinguished:
Julian, Lord Pauncefote was Britain's first fully-fledged Ambassador to United States. His sister
Eliza Aders (1785–1857) was a hostess and artist. Smith's third relationship was with Hannah Croome (1757–1829), by whom he had another two children, who survived him. In 1793, he opened the Morland Gallery in King Street, Covent Garden, whence he issued catalogues of his prints. By 1798, he had listed over 302 publications in addition to his prints. 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 in
Doncaster. Chantry later did a bust of Smith in appreciation, that is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and there is a painting of Chantry by Smith. From 1808 Smith grew increasingly deaf. Based in Doncaster, he travelled extensively through the North of England. He died at his home there, and was buried in the parish churchyard. •
King George III (1760) • John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute (1760) • Hon Mrs Stanhope • Thomas King, English actor (1772) • Mr Banks (1773) • Chryses invoking the Vengeance of Apollo (1774) • Augustus Montague Toplady (1777) • Carlini, Bartolozzi and Cipriani (1778) • Mrs Elizabeth Carnac (1778) • Miss Brown (1778) • Joseph Tayadaneega, the Brant, the Great Captain of the Six Nations (1779) • Self-Portrait (1782) • Lieutenant-colonel Banastre Tarleton (1782) • The Weird Sisters (1785) • Rev Charles Alcock (1785) • The Widow's Tale • Self-Portrait (1785-7) • Shepherdess (1787) • William Bentinck, Duke of Portland and Lord Edward Bentinck (1788) • The Moralist (facsimile after JRS, 1900) • The Widow of an Indian Chief (1789) • Edward Heardson, cook for the Ad Libitum Society (1789) • 'What You Will' (c1790) • George Morland (1792) • His Royal Highness, George, Prince of Wales (1792) • Sir William Musgrave, 6th baronet • Miss Chambers • Gypsy encampment •
Edward Jenner (1800) • Lady in a Straw Hat • Hon Douglas Kinnaird • Sir Francis Burdett, Bt • Sir Benjamin, Count Rumford (c1800) • Thomas Morton (1803) • Thomas Hartley, Lord Mayor of York (1803) • Colonel and Mrs Thornton (1806) • Lieut William Collingwood, Northumberland Militia (1809) • John Bigland, Doncaster schoolmaster (1810) • John Horne Tooke (1811) • Major General Benjamin Lincoln, President of the Cincinnati (1811) • Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1818) ==Notes==