Career
Smits came to live in Dordrecht for a few years with the organist Joan Kools, whose wife traded in paintings, when he was 40 in 1675. He started by making "penitent Maria Magdalenes", but made his living primarily by painting fruit and flower still lifes in the manner of January Davidsz de Heem and Willem van Aelst. He used cheap paint that faded quickly, and when his customers complained he said that the paint lasted longer than the money that was paid for them.
According to the RKD he was known under the names Lodewyk, Gaspar, and Magdalen Smits, as well as the alias Theodorus Hartkamp.