Smith, John

Gender:

Male

Date and place of birth:

Unknown

Date and place of death:

Unknown

Worked:

(fl) 1786 - 1794

Known places of work:

Edinburgh

Known techniques:

Painted on plaster and painted on Ivory

Known materials:

Plaster

Frames:

Oval hammered brass with convex glass

Signature:

Recorded

Introduction:

In the past, John Smith has been somewhat derivatively compared to the contemporary artist John Miers, with whom he shares technical and stylistic features. However, there are several distinctive and positive characteristics which differentiate Smith’s work, particularly his techniques for painting men’s shirt frills and women’s scalloped curls.

Little is known about the life of John Smith. It is likely he originally worked as a hair and pearl setter for jewellery pieces, before moving to Milne’s Square, Edinburgh 1788 where he became a painter of silhouettes for at least six years. Whether he used his jewellery making skills in later life is of some debate, as no silhouette jewellery pieces from Smith have been discovered. Smith mainly used oval hammered brass frames with convex glass, having mounted the portraits onto a flat or convex plaster slab. The use of convex plaster appears to have been unique to Smith.

John Smith’s silhouettes have often been dismissed in the belief that his style is too similar to that of John Miers. However, Smith’s work contains some positive and distinctive features. He depicted curls as a string of scallops smudged along the outside, a unique rendering of this popular contemporary hairstyle. Men’s clothing, in particular shirt frills and waistcoats, was also carefully rendered in transparency through use of thinned pigment. John Smith’s work is not as well known as John Miers’, but over time it has become easier to differentiate the two styles of profiling and he has grown in popularity.