Edward Smith (fl. 1823-49)

Edward Smith (fl. 1823-49)

The landscape, figure, and portrait engraver Edward Smith may have been a native of Edinburgh but appears to have worked mostly in London. His earliest recorded plates are for Effigies Poeticae in 1823. He went on to contribute to Hogarth Moralized (1831), Hogarth's Works (1833), Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap-Book (1835), Allan Cunningham's The Cabinet Gallery of Pictures, Edward Baine's History of the County Palatine and Duchy of Lancaster (both 1836), John Carne's Syria (1836-38), Finden's Royal Gallery of British Art (1838-49), G.N. Wright's Lancashire (1842) and Gallery of Engravings (1844-46), and Engravings after the Best Pictures (1843). He engraved The Jew's Harp by Sir David Wilkie for S.C. Hall's Gems of European Art (1846), which was reprinted along with Smith's engraving of The Piper in The Wilkie Gallery (1849). Further plates after Wilkie, including Village Festival, Rent Day, and Guess My Name were independently issued by the print publishers between 1844 and 1846.

Click on the thumbnail to see a full-size image of Edward Smith's engraving of Sir David Wilkie's The Piper.

Bibliography

Engen, Rodney K. Dictionary of Victorian Engravers, Print Publishers and their Works (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, c1979)
Hunnisett, Basil. A Dictionary of British Steel Engravers (Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis, 1980)

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