John Smith (c. 1652 – c. 1742)

• Was an English mezzotint engraver and print seller.
• Smith was born in Daventry, Northamptonshire.
• He was articled to a painter named Tillet in London, and studied mezzotint engraving under Isaac Beckett and Jan van der Vaart.
• Smith became the favourite engraver of Sir Godfrey Kneller.
• At the end of his career, Smith retired to Northamptonshire, where he died on 17 January 1742 at age 90.
• He was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's, Northampton church.
• Smith created approximately 500 plates; nearly 300 of these plates were portraits of notable men and women of the period between the reigns of Charles II and George II.
• Most of Smith's early plates had been published by the renowned print seller Edward Cooper.
• In 1700, Smith became a printseller at the Lyon and Crown in Covent Garden and started publishing his own works.
• Smith's latest print appears to have been the portrait of the young Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, after Joseph Highmore, dated 1729.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: Sir Godfrey Kneller, John Smith the Engraver, 1696.
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