Details of Sculptor

Surname

Smith

Alternative Surname

First Name

James II

Initial of Surname

S

Year of Birth/Baptism

1775

Flourished

Year of Death

1815

Biographical Details

A pupil of Giovanni Battista Locatelli, James Smith II attended the Royal Academy Schools from 1795. According to Farington he was awarded their silver medal for ‘a Model of a Figure’ in 1797 (Farington, 3, 943), though this was in fact a gold medal for Venus wounded by Diomede, a subject from Homer (8). In 1802 Smith applied to the RA for funding to travel to Italy, but appears to have been turned down. Instead he left the RA and worked briefly under JCF Rossi and later John Flaxman RA, with whom he stayed eight years as an assistant. During this time he was employed on various projects including Flaxman’s monument in Westminster Abbey to Lord Mansfield.
Despite these connections, when Smith applied to undertake the monument in Guildhall to Admiral Lord Nelson (3) for the Corporation of London, neither Rossi nor Flaxman were generous in their support. After a visit from a Corporation delegation, Flaxman refused to endorse Smith’s competence, in case ‘it might hereafter be said that they had his authority for the ability of Smith in case of a failure in their expectations’ (Farington, vol 7, 2760). Rossi considered Smith his professional inferior, but his lack of enthusiasm may also have stemmed from a desire to gain the Nelson commission himself. In this Rossi was supported by Alderman Boydell, but Smith’s design was taken up by Boydell’s political opponents on the court of Common Council and he was awarded the commission on 3 May 1806. Rossi seems to have recognised that Smith played no part in the political chicanery, affirming that Smith was ‘a quiet man and not likely to have carried the point by intrigue’ (Farington, 7, 2743). Smith’s monument to Nelson cost £4,442 7s 4d, and was unveiled in 1810. It was ‘generally deplored’ (Penny 1976 (2), 548), and Gunnis called it ‘an inferior mass of marble’ (Gunnis 1968, 357). Smith also appears to have had problems in obtaining payment, and wrote to the Corporation to complain ‘I am drained of all the money I had the honour of last receiving from the Corporation and I am now really left destitute of means to provide for the remaining sums that must be paid’ (City Records, MS.95.2, cited by Gunnis 1968, 357). The Nelson memorial was Smith’s only major commission for a monument, but he was responsible for a wall-mounted memorial with two seated figures to Giles Earle (4). There were also a few other memorials, chiefly in counties just north of London.
In 1808 a significant commission came in, for four chimneypieces ordered by the 5th Earl Cowper, son-in-law of the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, for the family home, Panshanger (11-14). Smith also executed a number of portrait busts, including one of the actress Mrs Siddons, 1813, which an advertisement claimed to be ‘the only one of Mrs Siddons modelled from the life’ (cited by Gunnis 1968, 357) (9). After being exhibited at the Royal Academy the bust was placed in the green room at Drury Lane theatre. Other notable sitters included the Poet Laureate Robert Southey (10).
In addition to sculptural works, Smith was the prefered modeller for the elaborate clocks, torcheres and other decorative objects in bronze produced in the early 1800s by the leading clockmakers, Vulliamy & Son. Outstanding examples of their work utilizing models by Smith are a set of 14 very large candelabra, each carried by three bronze putti, made for the Prince of Wales c1809-10 and still at Windsor Castle.
Smith’s working life was relatively short, and he died on 28 April 1815 at the age of 41, leaving a wife and two sons, at least one of whom, Charles Raymond Smith, also became a sculptor. At his death James Smith had been under commission to produce a monument to General Le Marchant for St Paul’s Cathedral, London, and this was completed by Rossi, who in turn sent the £200 payment he received to Smith’s widow.
Michael Paraskos
Literary References: GM, 1819, i, 43; 1839, i, 547; Smith, 1828, II, 126; Gunnis 1968, 357-8; Farington, vol 3, 943; vol 7, 2760;Whinney 1988, 374; Yarrington 1988, 97-101
Archival References: RA premium list
Will: PROB 11/1569