John Smibert (1688 - 1751)

• Was a Scottish American artist born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
• Smibert travelled to Italy from 1719 to 1722.
• Then settled in London where he worked as a portrait painter from 1722-1728.
• Among his London portraits is one of Bishop Berkeley who, in 1728, enticed Smibert to accompanied him to America, with the intention of becoming professor of fine arts in the college which Berkeley was planning to found in Bermuda.
• The college, however, was never established, and Smibert settled in Boston, where he married in 1730.
• In 1734, Smibert opened a shop where he sold paint, other artist's supplies, and prints.
• In his studio above the shop, he displayed casts and copies of Old Masters that he had painted in Europe.
• This collection, which Richard Saunders has termed "America's first art gallery", provided much of the early artistic education for Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, and John Trumbull.
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