John Thomas Smith

John Thomas Smith, also known as Antiquity Smith (1766–1833), was an English painter, engraver and antiquarian. He wrote a life of the sculptor Joseph Nollekens, that was noted for its "malicious candour", and was a keeper of prints for the British Museum. Biography John Thomas Smith was born in the back of a Hackney carriage on 23 June 1766. His mother was returning home to 7 Great Portland Street. He was named John for his grandfather and Thomas after his great uncle, Admiral Thomas Smith. His father Nathaniel Smith was at that time a sculptor working for Joseph Nollekens, but later became a printseller. John Thomas Smith first tried to train as a sculptor with Nollekens, but left to study with John Keyse Sherwin and at the Royal Academy. After three years he left to live off his drawing skills. He gave up his topographical drawing and acting ambitions to compile Antiquities of London and its Environs which was later described as his favourite work. Smith became known as "Antiquity Smith". In 1796 the young John Constable was introduced to Smith, and he became Constable's informal artistic mentor.