Background
John Smart was born in Leith, the son of Robert Campbell Smart (d1871), an engraver operating from 20 Elm Row. His mother was Emily Margaret Morton.
John Smart was born in Leith, the son of Robert Campbell Smart (d1871), an engraver operating from 20 Elm Row. His mother was Emily Margaret Morton.
He was educated at Leith High School, and then studied art at the School of Manufacturers, with the intention of becoming an engraver himself.
He also tackled genre subjects, and painted in both oils and watercolour. Smart played golf at Leith Links. He is now perhaps best known for his early paintings of golf courses in Scotland, "The Golf Greens of Scotland".
After showing talent for landscape painting, he instead became a pupil of Horatio McCulloch.
Smart"s paintings depicted scenery from across the Lowlands and highlands of Scotland. The critic James Caw said of Smart"s landscape paintings, "If coarse in handling and wanting in subtlety of feeling, they are simple and effective in design, vivid in effect and powerful in execution, and breathe an ardent passion for the landscape of his native land."
Both his house and studio were at 13 Brunswick Street in Edinburgh"s east education