(1769 - 1828), from S.Carolina; m. 1809 Charlotte Izard.
1793 - 7 Venice (by 19 Jun. 1793; 28 May - 7 Jun. 1794); Rome ( - Feb. 1796), Naples (Mar. 1796), Florence (1797) [Ireland by Nov.]
Smith, an American connoisseur and collector, was travelling in Europe between 1793 and 1807. He went to Italy from England with Lord Wycombe.1 'Smith Allen Americano Cavaliere' was in Venice on 19 June 1793, and again from 28 May to 7 June 1794.2 He was probably Smith, the 'ennuyeux' American, who went with Lady Webster from Rome to Naples in March 1796 (but see James Smith, the American painter). In Florence he was a discerning patron of Fabre, from whom he commissioned five paintings, including two portraits, one life size 'au milieu des ruines de l'ancienne Rome'.3 A small whole-length by Fabre, dated Florence 1797, showing Smith seated in front of a view of Florence is in the Fitzwilliam Museum and a sketch is in Montpellier; drawings for two of the history pieces commissioned by Smith, Ajax dragging Cassandra from the altar of Minerva and Helen pleading with Menelaus are repectively in the Uffizi and the Louvre.4 In March 1799 Fabre was still working for Smith with whom he had lost touch ('il y a bien des mois que je n'ai pas de ses nouvelles').4 In August Fabre told Lord Holland 'quant ? la composition du tableau de M. Smith, vous devinez parfaitment juste: l'honneur de la composition est tout ? lui. J'ai tout au plus le m?rite de l'?xecution' (probably referring to the portrait).5 In December 1796 Smith had consigned from Rome to Civitavecchia a large collection of works of art, deliberately compiled to 'to be of some service to his countrymen when they should turn their thoughts to the study of Painting & Sculpture', but by November 1797 he learned it had been taken by the French - '13 cases of valuable paintings, near 3000 gems, some valuable statues, real antiques, & some copies, which he had himself superintended, of the most renowned statues of Rome, Florence, & Naples, of colossal size'. The collection was eventually recovered and installed at Philadelphia, where only four of his pictures are identifiable today in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (by Guido Reni, Schidone and attributed to Salvator Rosa).
Smith was in Ireland by November 1797, France in 1801 and Russia 1802 - 5, returning to America in 1807.
1. See E.P. Richardson, American Art Jnl., 52[1969]:5 - 19. 2. ASV is 768, 770. 3. NACF Review 1985, 152 (Cts. of Albany, [Jul. 1797]). 4. P. Bordes, Burl.Mag., 117[1975]:159 and n12. 5. NACF Review 1985, 152 (to Ld. Holland, 24 Aug. 1799).