John Rubens Smith (1775-1849)

View of Ramsgate Pier
Signed ‘JR Smith’ (lower right)
Watercolor, wash, graphite and ink on paper
11 ¼ x 26 in.

PROVENANCE:
Private Collection, Philadelphia

JOHN RUBENS SMITH (1775-1849) was the son of the renowned portrait pastelist and mezzotint engraver John Raphael Smith (1752-1812) with whom he first learned his art. He later attended the Royal Academy in London and exhibited from 1796 to 1811. Smith worked in the style of his father, but developed a passion for creating watercolors recording the cities and towns of England.

Smith later struck out and immigrated to New York from London about 1809. He first settled in Boston, and later lived in Brooklyn, New York and Philadelphia. He founded Art Schools during his time in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. After establishing himself in the United States, Smith traveled the length of the Eastern seaboard, recording, as he did in England, the city views of the new republic. Smith became an important chronicler of emerging United States.