1 Item No items selected
Thomas Smith, Esq., Vice Admiral of the White
National Portrait Gallery, London
Larger Image Select Item Email Link Print Feedback
John Faber the Younger (c.1684-1756) after Wilson
Thomas Smith, Esq., Vice Admiral of the White
1746
Mezzotint
361 x 261 mm (paper)
14 1/4 x 10 1/4 in. (paper)
NPG D4256
E1C
Three-quarter length portait of Thomas Smith Esq. standing leaning with his left elbow on the base of a broken column, holding a telescope in front of him, left knee bent and advanced, right hand on hip. He is wearing a coat with large decorations around the buttons, open over a silk jacket and a long wig. There are distant sails in the background to the left.
Lettered with title, 'Thomas Smith Esq. [continuing] Vice Admiral of ye White / Commander in Chief of his Majesty's Ships on the Coast of Scotland, Anno 1746', a heraldic achievement with the motto 'Ung Dieu et Ung Roy', and 'R. Wilson pinxt. / I. Faber fecit / Price 2s. London. Price 2s. London, Printed for R. Sayer, I. Ryal & R.Withy in Fleet Street'
See 'Links' tab
The sitter's great-nephew, John Thomas Smith, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, mentions 'a spirited half-length portrait, painted by the celebrated Richard Wilson [...] from which picture there is an excellent engraving in mezzotinto, by Faber.' (see bibliography).
J.T. Smith, A Book for a Rainy Day, 1845, pp. 3-4; Chaloner Smith, vol. 1, p. 426, cat. 333; Russell p. 96, cat. 333, state V; sale cat., The Lyttelton Papers, Sotheby's London, 12 December 1978 p. 101 (cat. 79)