AKA John Smybert

Born: 24-Mar-1688
Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
Died: 2-Apr-1751
Location of death: Boston, MA
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Granary Burial Ground, Boston, MA

Gender: Male
Religion: Presbyterian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Painter, Architect

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The Bermuda Group

Scottish-American artist, was born at Edinburgh in 1684, and died in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1751. He studied under Sir James Thornhill, and in 1728 accompanied Bishop Berkeley 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. About 1729 he painted "Bishop Berkeley and His Family", a group of eight figures. He painted portraits of Jonathan Edwards and Judge Edmund Quincy, Mrs. Smybert, Peter Faneuil and Governor John Endecott, John Lovell, and probably one of Sir William Pepperrell. Issues with his eyesight forced an end to his career around 1749. A son, Nathaniel Smibert, was a pupil of his father, and dying at the age of twenty-two, left several important canvases, notably a portrait of Dorothy Wendell.

Father: John Smibert (d. Jan-1690)
Mother: Allison Bell
Wife: Mary Williams (m. 20-Jul-1730)
Daughter: Allison (b. 14-May-1731)
Son: William (b. 1732)
Son: John (b. 1733)
Son: Nathaniel (b. 20-Jan-1734, d. 8-Nov-1756)

    Society Virtuosi of London 1720
    Scottish Ancestry

Selected paintings:
Bishop Berkeley and His Family (1729)
The Bermuda Group (1731)

Selected edifices:
Faneuil Hall (1740-42, Boston)

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