John Christopher Smith

Zoffany, Johann (1733-1810)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
ca. 1763
Height:
89.0 cm  (35 1/16 in.)
Width:
68.0 cm  (26 3/4 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas

    Item location

  • Foundling Museum (London)
    Gerald Coke Handel Collection[Museum inv. no.: 6536]

Description

John Christopher Smith, junior, had a few lessons from Handel and Johann Christoph Pepusch but studied mostly with Thomas Roseingrave. He later became Handel's secretary, musical assistant and amanuensis, when blindness prevented Handel from writing or conducting in his later years. The last year where Handel conducted performances of his oratorios was 1752. Smith is depicted half-length, turned to his left, wearing a blue coat with gold braid, white cravat and wig, holding a quill in his right hand, right elbow leaning on a pile of music sheets on a table, partly written on.Painted perhaps at the time of his marriage to Martha Coxe in 1763.

People as subjects

Smith, John Christopher (1712-1795) (Musician portrait)

Iconclass

48C723
portrait of a musician

Musical works

illegible music notation

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1
image link 2
Wikimedia Commons

Bibliographic references

Hunter, David. "Handel’s students, two lovers and a shipwreck", Early Music 39/2 (May 2011) 157–64, illus. 2. RILM 2011-02550.

RIdIM record id

4285