John Smibert stands as a pivotal figure in the nascent art scene of colonial America. A Scottish-born and European-trained artist, he brought a level of professionalism, skill, and cosmopolitan taste to New England that was previously unmatched. His arrival in Boston marked a turning point, establishing a benchmark for portraiture that would influence generations of American painters. Smibert was not merely a painter; he was an entrepreneur, an educator by example, and a cultural conduit, whose studio and collection became a de facto art academy for aspiring colonial artists. This exploration delves into his life, his artistic journey, his seminal works, and his enduring legacy as a foundational architect of American art.
Early Life and European Artistic Formation
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1688, John Smibert's early life was modest. His father was a dyer and burgess of the city, and young Smibert was initially apprenticed to a house painter and plasterer. This practical training, though humble, likely provided him with a foundational understanding of pigments and surfaces. However, his ambitions lay beyond decorative work. Around 1709, drawn by the allure of a more sophisticated artistic environment, Smibert made his way to London, the bustling heart of the British art world.
In London, Smibert sought formal artistic training. He enrolled in the Great Queen Street Academy, one of the earliest attempts to establish a formal art school in England, founded by the preeminent court painter Sir Godfrey Kneller. Studying under Kneller, or at least within his influential circle, Smibert would have been immersed in the prevailing late Baroque portrait style. Kneller, a German-born artist who had studied in Holland with pupils of Rembrandt and in Italy, dominated English portraiture for decades. His style, characterized by its elegant poses, rich textures, and flattering portrayals, set the standard for aristocratic and gentry portraiture. Smibert diligently copied paintings and drew from casts of classical sculptures, honing his skills in draftsmanship and composition.
To further his artistic education, Smibert, like many aspiring artists of his time, embarked on a Grand Tour of Italy, spending approximately three years there, from 1717 to 1720. This period was crucial for his development. He immersed himself in the study of the Old Masters, particularly those of the High Renaissance and Baroque periods. In cities like Florence and Rome, he would have encountered firsthand the works of giants such as Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Correggio. He is known to have diligently copied masterpieces, including Titian's Venus of Urbino and works by Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. This practice was not mere imitation but a vital method of understanding composition, color theory, anatomy, and the handling of paint. His time in Italy solidified his technical abilities and broadened his artistic vocabulary, equipping him with a sophisticated European style. Upon his return to London around 1720, he established himself as a portrait painter, achieving a degree of success, though the market was highly competitive, with established figures like Kneller and Charles Jervas, and emerging talents like William Hogarth.
The Transatlantic Venture: The Bermuda Project and Arrival in America
Smibert's decision to leave London for the New World was intrinsically linked to the idealistic, albeit ultimately ill-fated, "Bermuda Project" conceived by the Irish philosopher and Anglican cleric, Dean George Berkeley (later Bishop Berkeley). Berkeley envisioned establishing a college, St. Paul's College, in Bermuda to educate both colonists and Native Americans, aiming to spread Christian civilization and classical learning in the Americas. He sought a painter to serve as a professor of fine arts, a testament to his enlightened view of a comprehensive education.
Smibert, perhaps seeing an opportunity for greater prominence in a less crowded field, or genuinely inspired by Berkeley's vision, agreed to join the expedition. In 1728, he set sail with Berkeley and his entourage. Their first stop in the Americas was Newport, Rhode Island, where they arrived in January 1729, awaiting funding and royal charter approval for the Bermuda college. During this period of waiting, which stretched for nearly three years, Smibert was not idle. He began to receive portrait commissions from the local gentry of Newport, giving him his first taste of the colonial art market.
It was in Newport that Smibert painted one of his most ambitious and significant works, The Bermuda Group (Dean George Berkeley and His Entourage), completed around 1729. This large-scale group portrait, depicting Berkeley, his family, Smibert himself (looking directly at the viewer from the left), and other members of the project, is a landmark in American art. It was the most complex figural composition produced in the colonies up to that time, showcasing Smibert's European training in its sophisticated arrangement of figures, psychological engagement, and rich, albeit somewhat muted, Baroque palette. The painting served as a powerful statement of cultural aspiration and intellectual endeavor on American soil.
When it became clear by late 1731 that the promised funding for St. Paul's College would not materialize, the Bermuda Project was abandoned. Berkeley eventually returned to Europe. Smibert, however, made a different choice. Instead of returning to the competitive London art scene, he decided to settle in Boston, Massachusetts, a thriving colonial port city with a growing class of wealthy merchants and officials who were potential patrons for his skills. He arrived in Boston in November 1728, even before the final collapse of the Bermuda scheme, sensing the opportunities the city held.
Dominating the Boston Art Scene
Upon settling in Boston, John Smibert quickly established himself as the leading portrait painter in New England, a position he would hold for nearly two decades. His European training and sophisticated style set him apart from the largely self-taught or artisan-level limners who had previously catered to colonial patrons. Smibert brought a new level of realism, psychological depth, and painterly technique to American portraiture.
His patrons were the colonial elite: prosperous merchants, influential clergymen, government officials, and their families. These individuals sought portraits that would convey their status, piety, and connection to British cultural norms. Smibert's Baroque style, tempered for colonial tastes – less ostentatious than its European counterpart but still imbued with dignity and substance – was perfectly suited to these aspirations. He painted prominent figures such as Governor Jonathan Belcher, Judge Samuel Sewall, and the merchant Peter Faneuil.
One notable example of his Boston period is the Portrait of Francis Brinley (1729). This work depicts a wealthy landowner and merchant of Roxbury, Massachusetts. Brinley is shown in a confident, relaxed pose, one hand on his hip, the other gesturing towards a distant view of his estate and Boston harbor. The composition, with its landscape background and attention to the textures of Brinley's attire, reflects the conventions of British aristocratic portraiture, adapted to a colonial subject. Smibert's ability to capture a likeness while also conveying the sitter's social standing was key to his success. Other significant portraits include those of Mrs. Francis Brinley and their young son, creating a sense of dynastic continuity.
Smibert's portraits typically feature strong, direct characterizations. He paid careful attention to facial features, seeking to capture not just a physical likeness but also a sense of the sitter's personality. His use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) modeled forms effectively, giving them a three-dimensional presence. His color palettes were often rich and harmonious, though sometimes more subdued than the high Baroque of Europe, reflecting perhaps the more sober tastes of his New England clientele or the availability of pigments. He was adept at rendering the textures of fabrics – silks, velvets, and lace – which were important signifiers of wealth and status.
The Smibert Gallery: A Cultural Hub and Educational Resource
Beyond his own prolific output as a painter, John Smibert made an invaluable contribution to the cultural life of Boston by establishing what was essentially the first art gallery in the colonies. In 1734, he opened a studio and shop on Queen Street (now Court Street), which was more than just a place to paint. It became a center for artistic activity and a repository of European art.
Smibert displayed his own works, including the impressive Bermuda Group, which served as a powerful advertisement for his skills. Crucially, he also exhibited copies he had made of Old Master paintings during his time in Italy, as well as original works by other European artists that he may have acquired. This collection included reproductions of works by artists such as Titian, Van Dyck, Rubens, and Raphael. For aspiring colonial artists who had no opportunity to travel to Europe, Smibert's gallery offered an unparalleled chance to study European compositions, techniques, and artistic ideals.
Furthermore, Smibert's establishment was also an "artists' colourman" shop, where he sold painting supplies, brushes, canvases, and imported prints. These prints, often mezzotints reproducing famous British and European portraits and subject paintings, were vital for disseminating artistic styles and iconographies. They served as models and sources of inspiration for local artists and helped to cultivate a taste for art among the colonial populace. Artists like John Greenwood and the young John Singleton Copley are known to have frequented Smibert's studio and studied his collection. Copley, in particular, who would become the greatest portrait painter of colonial America, benefited immensely from access to Smibert's works and the European prints he sold, absorbing lessons in composition and technique that were foundational to his own development. Smibert's gallery, therefore, functioned as an informal art school and a crucial link to the wider European art world. He also organized what is considered the first public art exhibition in America in 1730, showcasing his own paintings.
Architectural Pursuits: Faneuil Hall
John Smibert's talents were not confined to painting. He also possessed skills as an architect, a common combination for artists in the 18th century. His most notable architectural contribution was his design for Faneuil Hall in Boston. In 1740, the wealthy merchant Peter Faneuil, whose portrait Smibert had painted, proposed to gift a market house and public meeting hall to the town. Smibert was commissioned to design the building.
His design for the original Faneuil Hall, completed in 1742, was a two-story brick structure in the English Georgian style, with an open ground floor for market stalls and a meeting hall on the upper floor. While the building was tragically destroyed by fire in 1761, it was rebuilt according to Smibert's original plans by Charles Bulfinch, who also later expanded it. Smibert's design provided Boston with an elegant and functional public building that became a crucial site for civic discourse, famously earning the title "Cradle of Liberty" during the American Revolution. This architectural achievement further underscores Smibert's multifaceted role in shaping the cultural and physical landscape of colonial Boston.
Influence on Contemporaries and Successors
John Smibert's impact on the trajectory of American art was profound and multifaceted. As the first academically trained painter to reside in New England for an extended period, he set a new standard for artistic quality and professionalism. His influence can be seen in the work of several contemporaries and the subsequent generation of painters.
Peter Pelham, an English-born engraver and painter who also settled in Boston, became Smibert's father-in-law when Smibert married Pelham's daughter, Mary, in 1730. Pelham was known for his mezzotint engravings, and there was likely a professional synergy between the two, with Pelham potentially engraving Smibert's portraits, further disseminating his work.
Robert Feke, a somewhat enigmatic painter active in Newport and Boston in the 1740s, is considered by many to be the first significant native-born American painter. Feke's more linear and delicately colored style differs from Smibert's robust Baroque, yet Feke undoubtedly learned from Smibert's example, particularly in terms of achieving a sense of elegance and capturing the social aspirations of his sitters. Feke's Isaac Royall and Family shows an ambition in group portraiture that echoes Smibert's Bermuda Group.
Joseph Badger, a Boston house painter and glazier who turned to portraiture, became active particularly after Smibert's health declined in the mid-1740s. Badger's style was more naive and less technically proficient than Smibert's, but he filled a niche in the market, and his work shows an attempt, however simplified, to emulate the compositions and poses found in Smibert's portraits.
The most significant artistic heir to Smibert's legacy in Boston was John Singleton Copley. As a youth, Copley had direct access to Smibert's studio and collection, even after Smibert's death in 1751, as Smibert's widow continued to maintain the gallery. Copley meticulously studied Smibert's paintings and the European prints and copies housed there. Early works by Copley show a clear debt to Smibert's compositions and his approach to capturing likeness and texture. While Copley would go on to develop his own distinct, powerful, and uniquely American style of realism, the foundation provided by Smibert's example was indispensable.
Other artists who benefited from the artistic environment Smibert helped create include John Greenwood, who was active in Boston before moving to Surinam and then Europe, and later, figures like Benjamin West and John Trumbull, who, though not directly taught by Smibert, inherited a heightened artistic standard in the colonies that Smibert had helped establish. West, who became a celebrated historical painter in London and President of the Royal Academy, and Trumbull, known for his depictions of the American Revolution, were part of a lineage of American artists seeking European validation, a path Smibert had, in a sense, pioneered in reverse by bringing European standards to America. Even painters working in other colonial centers, like Gustavus Hesselius in Philadelphia and Jeremiah Theus in Charleston, were part of this broader movement of professionalizing art in America, with Smibert being a leading light in New England. Charles Willson Peale, another major figure in early American art, also benefited from the general elevation of artistic practice that Smibert contributed to.
Later Years, Death, and Enduring Legacy
John Smibert continued to paint actively through the 1730s and into the early 1740s. However, by the mid-1740s, his health began to decline, and his artistic output consequently diminished. He suffered from failing eyesight, a particularly cruel affliction for a painter. Despite this, he remained a respected figure in Boston. He died in Boston on April 2, 1751, and was buried in the Granary Burying Ground, a historic cemetery that is the final resting place of many notable figures from the colonial era, including Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere. In accordance with the customs of the time for many, his grave was unmarked.
John Smibert's legacy, however, is far from unmarked. He is widely regarded as the most important painter in the American colonies during the first half of the 18th century. His contributions were manifold:
1. Elevated Artistic Standards: He brought a level of European academic training and Baroque sophistication to colonial portraiture that was previously unseen.
2. Established Professionalism: He operated as a professional artist, demonstrating that painting could be a viable and respected career in the colonies.
3. Cultural Dissemination: His studio-gallery, with its collection of copies, original works, and prints, served as an invaluable educational resource, exposing colonial artists and patrons to European art.
4. Influence on Future Generations: He directly and indirectly influenced key figures in American art, most notably John Singleton Copley, thus playing a crucial role in the development of a native artistic tradition.
5. Architectural Contribution: His design for Faneuil Hall left a lasting mark on Boston's civic landscape.
Smibert's art provided a visual record of the colonial elite, capturing their aspirations for dignity, refinement, and a connection to British culture. His robust, characterful portraits helped to shape the image of colonial society. While later artists would forge styles more distinctly "American," Smibert laid a critical foundation, bridging the Old World and the New, and firmly establishing the tradition of portrait painting that would flourish in the decades leading up to and following the American Revolution. He was, in essence, the father of professional painting in New England and a key progenitor of the American artistic lineage. His works continue to be studied for their artistic merit and as important documents of early American cultural history.
