John Smybert was a Scottish American artist, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and died in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Education
Smybert began drawing while apprenticed as a painter and plasterer, on moving to London he worked as a painter of coach carriages and a copyist. He studied under Sir James Thornhill at his academy, then travelled to Edinburgh and Europe seeking work as portraitist.
Career
Smibert painted a group portrait of the "Virtuosi of London" society, of which he was a member. Others in the group were John Wootton, Thomas Gibson, George Vertue, Bernard Lens, and other artists. He did not complete the painting, but did produce portraits in London up to September 1728, including one of Bishop Berkeley.
In 1728 he accompanied Berkeley to America, with the intention of becoming professor of fine arts in the college which Berkeley was planning to found in Bermuda.
He lived at the corner of Brattle Street and Queen-Street. He belonged to the Scots Charitable Society of Boston.
In 1728 he began painting "Dean George Berkeley and His Family," also called "The Bermuda group", now in the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University, a group of eight figures. lieutenant is maintained that the person farthest to the left is actually the artist himself.
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. Between 1740-1742, he served as architect for the original Faneuil Hall, which he designed in the style of an English country market.
The hall burned down in 1761 but was restored, and then in 1806 greatly expanded and modified by Charles Bulfinch.
Smybert lies in an unmarked grave in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston.