Smith, John 'Warwick'

(1749 - 1831), water-colourist; b. in Cumberland; studied under Sawrey Gilpin and patronised by Ld. Warwick; settled in Warwick, then in London from at least 1797.

1776 - 81 Rome (by 13 Jan. - 22 Mar. 1778), Naples (Mar. 1778 - Jul. 1779), Rome (15 Jul. 1779 - Aug. 1781)

Smith was sent to Italy by the 2nd Earl of Warwick (previously George, Lord Grenville), himself an amateur draughtsman, and stayed for five years. His Italian sojourn coincided with those of William Pars, Francis Towne and Thomas Jones, whose Memoirs provide some account of Smith's activities.1 Farington recorded that Smith went to Italy in 1776,2 but Jones first met him in Rome on 13 January 1778 when Smith was much in the company of the architects Thomas Hardwick and John Henderson and had a house 'about two miles without the Porte Pia'.

On 22 March 1778 Smith left Rome for Naples (accompanied by a Captain Wood who soon returned to Rome). Smith spent the next sixteen months based in Naples, making frequent excursions. In May, with Hardwick, he visited Portici, Pozzuoli and the islands of Nisida and Capri.3 From mid-September to 17 October Smith was staying at Vietri in a house on a hill, to which he returned the following year; a watercolour of it is inscribed: 'My Residence for two successive summers'.4 On 17 October Thomas Jones met Stephen Storace, Cobley (an Irish merchant in Naples) and Smith returning from Vietri, and later that month Smith and Jones sketched at Capo di Monte (20 October). Storace and Giuseppe Plura were with them at Portici and Vesuvius (29 October), and Cobley joined them on a visit to Pozzuoli (14 November); Smith and Cobley were at Sorrento with Jones and Storace on 17 November. On 1 December Smith and Jones shared lodgings at the Gennaro di Napoli near the Arsenal. Jones, who was taken ill there, commented that Smith 'came home so late in the Evening & went out so early in the Morning' that he had to tend for himself.

Jones left for Rome on 23 January 1779 and Smith arrived back on 15 July, having resided in Naples 'ever since March last twelvemonth'. He took apartments near the Trinita dei Monti at the Monaco which also housed a musical academy and had 'a delightful Loggia or Open Gallery' on the roof 'where', wrote Jones, 'we spent many agreable Evenings with Song and Dance &c'. Smith celebrated Christmas Day 1779 with Jones, Durno, Pars, Alexander Day and a Mr Mitchel. He marked St David's Day, 1 March 1780, by dining with Jones. At Easter 1780 'Giovanni Smit Inglese Pittore' aged 30 was living at the Casa Costanzi in the Via Babuino,5 and he appears to have stayed on until August 1781 when he left Rome with Francis Towne to travel home through Switzerland (Towne's Alpine views are dated August and September 1781, see Towne).

Smith continued to work up his Italian material after his return to England and there are dated Italian views up to 1796. Select Views in Italy, published in London between 1792 and 1799, contained 72 plates engraved after Smith, including views of Bologna, Florence, Perugia, Assisi, Genoa, Paestum and Loreto. Many of Smith's Italian watercolours were sold by Lord Warwick's descendants in 1936 (Sotheby's, 17 Jun.).

1. Jones Memoirs, 68 - 9, 80 - 2, 90 - 1, 93. 2. Farington Diary (14 Feb. 1797). 3. Hardwick jnl.MSS (4, 5, 11, 13, 23 May, 2 Jun. 1778). 4. I.A. Williams, Early English Watercolours,

84. 5. AVR sa, S.Maria del Popolo.