# John Raphael Smith artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/john-raphael-smith/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T20:55:44.077Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Death date: 1812-03-02
- Nationality: English
- Common media: Mezzotint engraving, Painting, Drawing

## Portrait

![John Raphael Smith](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/JohnRaphaelSmith_SelfPortrait_mw05850.jpg)
John Raphael Smith · Public domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JohnRaphaelSmith_SelfPortrait_mw05850.jpg

## About John Raphael Smith

John Raphael Smith (1752–1812) was an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, publisher, and specialist in mezzotint engraving. His documented practice places him within the world of eighteenth-century British portraiture and reproductive printmaking, although the collected sources do not assign him to a named artistic movement. Collectors frequently encounter his name on mezzotints, including prints made after compositions by Joshua Reynolds and Joseph Wright of Derby. He also produced portraits and genre scenes associated with his own artistic practice. Because Smith worked both as an independent artist and as an interpreter of other artists' compositions, careful cataloguing should distinguish his role on each object: painter or designer, engraver, and sometimes publisher. Paintings and drawings may also bear his attribution, but the supplied market source does not establish how frequently those work types appear at auction. His established authority records help separate him from similarly named artists and support consistent entity matching across museum, library, and auction data.

## Common works and media

Works encountered under John Raphael Smith's name are principally mezzotint prints, including reproductive images after other British artists. Portraits and genre scenes are also documented subjects. His authority records identify him as both painter and printmaker, while another collected biography also records drawing and publishing activity. Attribution should state whether Smith created the underlying design, engraved another artist's composition, published the print, or performed more than one of those roles.

## Market and appraisal context

Appraising a work associated with John Raphael Smith begins with identifying its type and his role in its production. A mezzotint after another artist's composition should not be catalogued in the same way as a portrait or genre subject based on Smith's own design. The sitter or subject, source artist, maker attribution, and distinction between print, drawing, and painting help determine which public auction records are genuinely comparable. Appraisily maintains an auction-price page for Smith, but the collected source pack contains no individual lot descriptions or realized-price data. It therefore supports a method for comparison, not a price prediction or market-trend claim.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. The present identity profile is stronger than the supplied lot-level market evidence, so market conclusions should remain provisional.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2470482
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/79202309/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500116497
- Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Raphael_Smith
- Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Raphael_Smith
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/john-raphael-smith/