Nathaniel Smibert

American painter

Nathaniel Smibert (January 20, 1734 – November 8, 1756), was an American colonial artist in Boston, Province of Massachusetts, active in the mid-18th century. He is considered to be the first portrait painter in America.

Biography

Born in Boston in 1734, Nathaniel Smibert trained as a painter with his father, artist John Smibert. He painted several portraits, notably of Ezra Stiles, architect Peter Harrison, and Dorothy Wendell (in the Collection of Dr John L Hale, Boston). Smibert died young in 1756, at the age of twenty-two.^[1]^[2]

Image gallery

Portrait of Ezra Stiles, 1756
Portrait of John Lovell, 18th century
Portrait of an unidentified man, attributed to Nathaniel Smibert, 18th century

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nathaniel Smybert.

^ Boston Gazette, or Weekly Journal, 8 November 1756
^ Richard H. Saunders. John Smibert: Colonial America's First Portrait Pinter. Yale University Press, 1995.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Smybert, John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 281.