Self Portrait aged 31 1782

John Raphael Smith (1751-1812)

“Smith began his career as an apprentice to a linen draper, but scraped his first mezzotint in 1769 and eventually became the most celebrated producer of prints of the period.”

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Price:

£5,500

Materials:

Pastel on paper, laid onto canvas

Dimensions:

10 7/10 x 9 inches; 27.3 x 22.9 cm

Provenance:

  • Collection of E E Leggatt by 1914;
  • English Private Collection

Literature:

  • R. Edwards, ‘J. R. Smith and his pupils’, The Connoisseur, Vol. 93 (1934), p.96;
  • Richard Walker, National Portrait Gallery, Regency Portraits (London 1985), Vol.I, p.460.

Smith began his career as an apprentice to a linen draper, but scraped his first mezzotint in 1769 and eventually became the most celebrated producer of prints of the period. He was also a painter, and had a particular talent for portraiture in pastel, which provided him with a lucrative practice of up to forty sitters a week at two guineas a head. His patrons included prominent Whigs such as the Duke of Bedford, Lord Holland and Charles James Fox. The present pastel is thought to be Smith’s first self-portrait.

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