John Raphael Smith

John Raphael Smith (1751 – 2 March 1812) was a British painter and mezzotinter. He was the son of Thomas Smith of Derby, the landscape painter, and father of John Rubens Smith, a painter who emigrated to the United States. Biography Baptized at St Alkmund's Church on 25 May 1751, John Raphael, was born to be a painter. Named after the great Renaissance artist, he was born to mother Hannah Silvester and a father who was also a well thought of citizen of Derby. Thus he was able to secure an apprentice to a linen-draper in the city, after a brief education at Derby School. His elder brother, Thomas Corregio Smith (1743–1811), was also a painter. Determined to pursue a print-making business in London, in 1767 he moved to the capital, making additional income from production of miniatures. Almost immediately he met Ann Darlow, he proposed and they were married on 20 May 1768 at the Chapel of Savoy. Then he turned to engraving: his most successful mezzotint of Pascal Poali, after Henry Benbridge launched his career. He executed his plate of the Public Ledger, which proved most popular, and was followed by his mezzotints of Edwin the Minstrel (a portrait of Thomas Haden) after Wright of Derby, and Mercury Inventing the Lyre, after Barry.