This album of continental views by Thomas Smith, dating from the end of the eighteenth century, was exhibited and broken up in 1973. Smith came under the influence of Towne’s circle during an embryonic stage in his practice as an artist, although it is not possible to connect Smith directly with Towne himself other than by noting the affinity of their styles. It is more proper to consider him the pupil of John 'Warwick' Smith than Towne, although many of his sketches show a close affinity with Towne's work.

Thomas Smith has not been identified, but the 1973 catalogue suggested that he was the author of The Young Artist’s Assistant in the Art of Drawing in Watercolours and other drawing manuals published between 1824 and 1835. If so, evidently he was a successful drawing master, whose books acknowledged a debt to John Varley. The exhibition of pages from the album in 1973 prompted Andrew Wilton to attribute two British Museum sketches to Smith,¹ and Smith has also been identified with the Mr Smith who was the friend and companion of artist Henry Thomson (1773–1843) in Rome in 1795.² One drawing from the album is dated 1780 (exhibit 1) and another (not exhibited in 1973) “Caen – July ’86”; the album itself was given a date of 1795 and was made on paper with a watermark of 1822. It may be, therefore, that the drawings were done in the 1780s and 1790s, perhaps on more than one continental tour, and mounted much later.

It seems that Smith knew John “Warwick” Smith, as his drawing of the Ponte Rotto in Rome is a version of the latter’s watercolour of the ruin.³ This not only locates Thomas Smith in Rome at some point during “Warwick” Smith’s time there in ca. 1776–81, but shows that he had contact with the English artists. Judging not only from the fact of Smith’s copy but also from his inscription on the drawing, around this time he was actively learning to draw, presumably under instruction from a professional artist like “Warwick” Smith:

My drawings want finish – or in light chiefly / shadow eno’. – not to wash general washes / of yellow or ochre – give rotten look. / nor wash work one colour over another. / This wants strength of shadow. Distance right / not to confound colours one over another as in / water, yellow or blue over it.

Other sketches have similar comments; for example a view from Pozzuoli (exhibit 4) is inscribed: “[. . .] Morning, not early: stone in foreground too large & shadow not blue eno’. Figures too small: tree olive, not light eno’ above. Good effect of shadow from the cloud on the mountain.” Such criticisms show Smith’s preoccupation with shadows, lighting and the quality of daylight, which were shared by English and other artists in Rome during the period, including by Towne himself. On the view from Pozzuoli and on other drawings Smith, like other artists, indicated this interest with notations of the time of day and other comments relating to the light: exhibits 14 and 15 are inscribed “Morning early”; exhibit 50, “Morning early – effect of ray of light”; exhibit 46, “sunrise”; exhibit 12, “morning: the sun behind ye objects”; exhibits 27, 40, and 52, “Noon”; and exhibit 41, “near Sunset.” Arguably, Smith’s journey over the Splugen Pass to Glarus, Klonthalsee, and Walensee also indicates some familiarity with English artists, including Towne, who visited Rome during the 1770s and 1780s and who showed interest in the little-visited region, in contrast to tourists generally who limited their visits to Savoy and the west of Switzerland. 

The 1973 catalogue suggested that an evolution in Smith’s style took place between the Neapolitan subjects (exhibits 1 to 10) and the Swiss views (exhibits 40 to 56), and this notion is supported by the views reproduced in the catalogue. The 1973 catalogue also observed in two of Smith’s Italian sketches—exhibits 29, Tivoli, that view of ye Temple, called Trullia, and 31, View of outside of Villa Borghese, taken from the Belvedere of Villa Ludovisi (reproduced above)—an affinity with Towne’s Italian work. In the case of exhibit 29, a better comparison could be made with John “Warwick” Smith. The Swiss sketches show an arguably greater affinity with Towne and demonstrate that by the time of his visit there Smith had overcome problems of light, shade, and mass (for example exhibit 40, Via Mala. approach & passage under detached piece of rock to the Bridge, from Tusis side, and an unexhibited view of the Splugen Pass that was bought from the Manning Gallery in 1974 and sold through Abbott & Holder in June 2009). As Smith visited the same sites that Towne did on his visit to Switzerland, it is tempting to speculate that the two men travelled together, with or without John “Warwick” Smith—especially as the letter that is supposed to provide evidence of Towne’s travels with “Warwick” Smith “simply says Smith”.⁴

Checklist

The list below is a description of all of Thomas Smith's work, as it is presently known. The great majority of it comes from the album once owned by Welbore St.Claire Baddeley (1856-1945), which was broken up and sold by the Albany and Manning Galleries in 1973/4, and is based on information contained in the catalogue that accompanied its exhibition then. Four other sources are also known:

(1) Paul Oppé (894.57, 894.63, 894.75), who died long before the album was discovered;

(2) Judy Egerton (894.36), whose sketch was dated 1796, so cannot have been in the album, whose only dated works were 1780 and 1786;

(3) the British Museum (894.32, 894.35), which acquired two sketches in 1880, long before the album came to light; and

(4) Anthony Reed (894.86), who exhibited a sketch of an English subject in 1984 (894.53, which he showed at the same time, may or may not have been part of the album)

Naples (1-12)

Central Italy (42-50)

North Italian Lakes (51-58)

Switzerland (59-84)

France (85)

England (86)