Gabriel Smith (1724 - 1783)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Printmaker and drawing master, probably born in London where he was apprenticed to and then employed by the engraver Gerard Scotin. About 1760 he accompanied William Wynne Ryland to Paris, where he learnt the method of engraving in imitation of chalk drawings, from its greatest practitioner, Gilles Demarteau, who was producing engravings in this manner after red chalk drawings by François Boucher from 1759. On his return to England executed a series of plates in this style from designs by Watteau, Boucher, Le Brun, Bouchardon, and others, which were published by John Bowles with the title, ‘The School of Art, or most complete Drawing-book extant,’ 1765. In and about 1767 Smith engraved in the line manner, for Boydell, ‘Tobit and the Angel’ after Salvator Rosa, ‘The Blind leading the Blind’ after Tintoretto, ‘The Queen of Sheba’s Visit to Solomon’ after E. Le Sueur, and ‘Boar Hunting’ after Snyders. He also engraved a portrait of the Rev. John Glen King, F.R.S., after Falconet, and etched, from his own drawings, ‘Mr. Garrick in the Character of Lord Chalkstone in the Farce of Lethe,’ and ‘Mr. Foote in the Character of the Englishman returned from Paris.’