How award-winning landscape artists The Smith Brothers of Chichester influenced the art world

They were the sons of William Smith, a cooper (maker of wooden casks, barrels, buckets, etc.) and later a baker, and his wife Elizabeth Spencer, a Horsham butcher’s daughter. The couple married at West Chiltington in 1705.

The oldest of the three boys, William Jnr, was born in 1707, followed by George in 1714 and John in 1717. As well as the three boys, William and Elizabeth also had two daughters, Elizabeth and Sarah.

William Jnr was a portrait painter but also painted still life. The 2nd Duke of Richmond, impressed by his abilities, enabled William to study with a portrait painter in St Martin’s Lane, London.

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William remained in the capital for around five years, working in a studio in Princes Street, Leicester Fields, and was joined at some point by his younger brother George. William was subsequently invited to Gloucester, not as a portrait painter but having received a commission to paint an altarpiece for the private chapel of Sir John Guise at Elmore Court.

Sadly, the chapel and William’s commission did not survive. William spent eight or nine years in Gloucester as a portrait painter before returning to London, establishing himself in a studio in Piccadilly.

Here, he extended his work to include flower and fruit painting. In later years, William retired to a house at Shopwhyke, Chichester, where he died in 1764, aged 57.

Of the three, it was the middle brother George who gained most notoriety. George was originally apprenticed to one of his uncles to learn the trade of a cooper, however the industry wasn’t for him, and George instead joined his brother William in London as a student, later moving with him to Gloucester. too.

George struggled in his early career as a portrait painter and it wasn’t until he returned to Chichester that his work as a landscape painter was recognised by the Duke of Richmond, who employed George to paint landscape paintings for him.

In the early 1740s, George set up a studio in London with his brother William. Despite living in London, the brothers frequently visited and painted various Sussex locations and the area around Chichester remained the inspiration for many of their works.

Later, from around 1750, George and his younger brother John shared a studio in North Street, Chichester. John was similarly a landscape painter, however was generally of less robust health than his brothers. In later life, he needed much help from George and there was evidently a strong bond between the two, occasionally collaborating on the paintings together.

Between 1760 and 1764, the brothers exhibited their paintings at the Society of Arts. George won the coveted premium Society of Artists award for landscape painting on three occasions, 1760, 1761 and 1763.

John won the second premium in 1761 and premium in 1762. In a review of the second Society of Artists exhibition, the quality of the Smith brothers’ work was commended: “The superiority of the Smiths as landscape-painters is so incontestable visible to those who have the least judgement in painting, or in nature, that to declare my opinion in this matter is quite unnecessary. Their pieces, in general, are finely imagined, accurately drawn, and chastly color’d.”

John died aged 47 in July 1764, just a few months before his eldest brother William. George and John, over a period of about 15 years, collaborated on a volume of engraved prints and etchings, some of which were their own paintings but also of works by the Dutch masters that were popular at the time. A volume of 53 pieces was published as an album in 1770, a few years after John’s death, by the publisher John Boydell.

William and John continued to exhibit with the Free Society at the Society of Arts until their deaths in 1764 and George until 1774. In 1774, George also made his singular appearance at the Royal Academy, exhibiting four landscapes. Just two years later, on September 7, 1776, he too died and was buried beside his siblings in the churchyard of St Pancras.

Much of what we know of the lives of the painters comes from the second edition of Pastorals, a book of George Smith’s poetry published in 1811.

It is attributed to Thomas Sanden, a Chichester physician, but was heavily contributed to by George Smith’s remaining family, including his three daughters.

Due to this, we know more of George Smith’s temperament than of his brothers. He was described as a man of charm and understanding with a lively personality. His company was much sought after, both for his wit and humour, as well as for his musical accomplishment.

As well as being a painter and musician, George Smith also wrote pastoral poetry of some quality, claiming that though 'I never made the art of writing my particular study...my profession as a landscape painter induced me to study nature very attentively'.

The Smith brothers, and in particular George Smith, did much to influence the British public’s attitude to landscape. Their contributions encouraged a fondness for the picturesque and for the artistic exploration of the English countryside.

• This article has been written in conjunction with The Novium Museum, which supplies a monthly feature for the Chichester Observer’s Retro page. The award-winning museum is in the heart of the city centre and opening Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4:30pm, Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 10am to 4pm.

If you would like further information on St Paul’s Church, the topic of last month’s article, please see St Paul’s, Chichester: The Church, Its Parish and Its People: A History by local historian Alan Green.