A View of Hopping Mill, Ware

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Snaresbrook Crown Court

Thomas Smith of Derby was a topographical and picturesque landscape painter who lived in Bridgegate, Derby. He exhibited at the Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists from 1760 to 1767. Several examples of his work include groups of elegant tourists admiring views of country estates. He took his art sufficiently seriously to name both his sons after great painters, calling them Thomas Correggio Smith and John Raphael Smith (who continued the tradition by naming his son John Rubens Smith). Both of his sons naturally became artists, as did his daughter, Emma. Smith died on 5 September 1767 in Hotwells, a district of Bristol.
Francois Vivares was born near Montpellier, France. He was apprenticed to a tailor but made drawings, etchings and engravings in his spare time. He moved to London, aged 18, to study under French engraver and draughtsman Jean-Baptiste-Claude Chatelain and later under Italian painter Jacopo Amigoni. By 1744 he was publishing prints. He opened a print shop near Leicester Fields (now Leicester Square), producing prints after his own work, that of his pupils and ‘of the best Masters’. He became one of the most renowned landscape engravers of his time and is particularly known for engravings after the works of French painter Claude Lorrain. In 1766, he became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists. He died in London, aged 71.

Places

Subjects

rowing boat, fisherman, horseback, topography, tree, horse, sheep, river, hill, waterfall, cliff, man, woman, mill

Materials & Techniques

engraving, coloured engraving

Artist

Thomas, (of Derby) Smith (c.1720 - 24-1767)
Francois Vivares (1709 - 1780)

Title

A View of Hopping Mill, Ware

Date

25 August 1745

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Frank T Sabin, July 1974

GAC number

11226