Portrait-painter; born in
Edinburgh, Scotland, about 1684; studied in
Italy and painted in
London, and in 1728 accompanied
Dean Berkeley to
America.
He painted the portraits of many
New England worthies.
The only portrait of
Jonathan Edwards ever made was painted by
Smibert, who died in
Boston in 1751.
Smibert introduced portrait-painting into
America.
He was not an artist of the first rank, for the arts were then at a low ebb in
England; but the best portraits that we have of the eminent magistrates and divines in
New England and New York, who lived between 1725 and 1751, are from his pencil.
While with
Berkeley at
Newport he painted a group of portraits, including the dean and a part of his family, in which the figure of the artist appears.
The picture belongs to Yale College.