Smith, Thomas: Sketch by famous Derby artist sparks a mystery

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Maxwell Craven recently acquired a small sketch of what he believes is a Derbyshire village by the Derby artist Thomas Smith but has no idea where it is. Here he looks back at the artist’s life and wonders if readers can help locate the sketch.

Sepia sketch of an upland village attributed to Thomas Smith

An oil painting of Chatsworth in the 1750s

I ADMIT to being a trifle rash recently. I have splashed out on an original work of art, which I reproduce here for readers’ delight and delectation.

It is a mid-18th-century sepia sketch of a Derbyshire village, signed TS in the lower-left corner and thereby attributed, by a highly respected London dealer, to Thomas Smith of Derby.

Smith is best known for his expansive and slightly naive oil paintings of Derbyshire scenery and for an excellent series of engravings derived from some of them.

They are mainly of Peak District scenery, which are all that most of us can aspire to, though even these can cost several hundred pounds if they are in good condition.

His sketches – of which this is quite probably one – are even scarcer, probably because he doesn’t seem to have signed them. Even initials are unusual and only just sufficiently distinctive to make the attribution secure.

My favourite Smith oil is the delightful one in Derby Museum of members of the Burdett family enjoying a fete champetre on the banks of the Trent at Ingleby, near their house at Foremark, with the Anchor Chapel in the background. Others must have liked it, too, for it was later engraved for sale.

Thomas Smith is something of an enigma in that we do not have his date of birth, nor his age at his death on September 12, 1767.

So we do not know whether he was even born in Derby though, because he was known as Thomas Smith “of Derby”, it is quite likely.

It is always assumed Smith was self-taught, for there were few painters from whom to learn the trade in Derby after the death of Francis Bassano in 1746, and Bassano’s style seems to have little in common with Smith’s.

However, in a town then of only 4,500 to 5,000 souls, they must have known of one another and a period working with the older man is by no means impossible.

Smith was a connoisseur of art for, in his spacious house in Bridge Gate, he managed to build up a collection of prints and drawings by some of the truly great artists: Coreggio, Raphael, Canaletto, Poussin, Claude, Teniers, Watteau, Van Dyke, Hollar, Rubens and Durer – an eclectic mix. He also owned paintings by a host of lesser artists, mainly British contemporaries.

When he first started painting is unknown but the first prints from his work were engraved by himself and published by Francis Vivares in 1743. They are six Derbyshire scenes. By the end of his life, about 40 of his paintings had proved popular enough to merit engraving, mainly by Vivares himself rather than the artist. Very few of the originals have surfaced and even fewer of any sketches he did. If the view above really is his work – unfortunately neither the oil painting nor an engraving from it has survived – identifying the place depicted is rather tricky.

Perhaps readers can help. The ancient chapel on the left is surely the key to recognising the scene.

While most of Smith’s landscapes are of Derbyshire, the prints suggest that he also painted upland villages in Yorkshire and The Lakes, as well as Newstead Abbey and Hagley Hall in Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire.

The scene is most likely to be Derbyshire but not necessarily. No Derbyshire church exactly like this survives. However, allowing for Victorian reconstructions, Atlow, Carsington or even Smalley may be candidates, bearing in mind that the date must be 1743 to 1767.

Clifton also once had a church of this simple type but it was demolished during Smith’s lifetime. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Smith married a lady called Hannah and had four children born between 1748 and 1760, which suggests that he was born around 1720. His three sons were all named after artists: Thomas Coreggio, John Raphael and Charles Leonardo. They sound like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. John Raphael exceeded his father in fame as an artist. Thomas Coreggio was also a competent miniaturist, but was forced to advertise his services for house painting some of the time.

John Raphael’s son, John Rubens (1775-1847), became a successful artist in the U.S.

Smith died “at the hot wells, Bristol” in 1767, presumably having gone there for a cure for some kind of ailment. He cannot have been much over 48. His art collection was sold by his widow, including most of his own originals the following year. What became of most of the latter seems to be open to question.

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