Thomas Smith
Born 1800 (Circa)
Active: 1827 - 1877
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor
Born in Hampstead, London. Roscoe (2009 pp.1153-4) suggests Thomas Smith may have been the son of James Smith II (1775-1815) and younger brother of Charles Raymond Smith (born c.1798). This is based on his sharing an address with Charles Smith at 57 Upper Norton Street, Fitzroy Square c.1827. In 1841 Thomas was residing in Savoy Street London with a Jane Smith aged about 24 and a Mary Smith aged about 84, it is presumed these were his sister and mother.
He studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1817 and won medals in 1821 and 1822. Smith established himself as a sculptor of portrait and 'post-mortem' busts as well as a wax modeller. The high point of his career came around 1830, when he was appointed modeller of wax medallic portraits to the King (William IV) and Queen.
The address used by Smith for exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1852 and again in 1872 was the London residence of an architect and engineer named Thomas Smith (born c.1799 in Newington Butts) who was also based in Hertfordshire by 1871. It is possible that they were related.
No record of Thomas Smith the sculptor between 1852 and 1872 has been traced. Graves (1905-6 pp. 191-2) associates him with Theophilus Smith of Sheffield and ascribes the work shown at the Royal Academy in 1877 to Thomas. However the census returns clearly indicate they are not the same person (see separate entry for Theophilus).
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited. Click here for more information.
Locations
Address 6 Savoy Street Strand London | View on map
1829 - 1844
Living here in 1841 with a Jane Smith aged about 24 and a Mary Smith aged about 84, presume these are sister and mother
Address 30 Cranmer Place Lambeth London | View on map
1849 (Circa) - 1850 (Circa)
Address 11 Belvedere Road Lambeth London | View on map
1851 (Circa)
Address 14 Hart Street Bloomsbury London | View on map
1852 (Circa) - 1872 (Circa)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Fourth, 1852
p.58
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1827 - 1872
Exhibited twenty times, out of the forty-one works shown at the Royal Academy all but two were shown prior to 1851
Personal and Professional Connections
Related to Charles Raymond Smith
Possibly brothers (see Roscoe (2009) pp.1153-4)
Descriptions of Practice
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1841
'Sculptor'
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851
'Sculptor'
Sources
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1841
2004
HO107 piece 686 folio 20/9 page 15
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851
2004
HO107 piece 1570 folio 322 page 26
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Fourth, 1852
1852
p.58
Citing this record
'Thomas Smith', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib7_1220349343, accessed 23 Jun 2021]
