John Orrin Smith (1799 – 15 October 1843

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) was a British wood-engraver.

Life

Born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, Smith went to London about 1818, and spent a short time training as an architect. Coming of age in 1821, he inherited some money, and bought a part-proprietorship in a newspaper, ''The Sunday Monitor'', on which

Douglas Jerrold Douglas William Jerrold (London 3 January 18038 June 1857 London) was an English dramatist and writer. Biography Jerrold's father, Samuel Jerrold, was an actor and lessee of the little theatre of Wilsby near Cranbrook in Kent. In 1807 Dougla ...

worked as a compositor. By the time he was 24 he found himself penniless.

William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and proper ...

then instructed him in

wood-engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and ...

. Orrin Smith had previously been a pupil of Samuel Williams. In 1842 Smith took into partnership

William James Linton William James Linton (December 7, 1812December 29, 1897) was an English-born American wood-engraver, landscape painter, political reformer and author of memoirs, novels, poetry and non-fiction. Birth and early years Born in Mile End, east Lon ...

. Smith and Linton did much work for the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'' appeared first on Saturday 14 May 1842, as the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Founded by Herbert Ingram, it appeared weekly until 1971, then less frequently thereafter, and ceased publication in ...

'', and illustrated books, including ''Whist, its History and Practice'', from designs by

Kenny Meadows Joseph Kenny Meadows, (November 1790–August 1874) better known as Kenny Meadows, was a British caricaturist and illustrator. He is best known for the drawings that he contributed to ''Punch'' and for his illustrations of scenes from Shakespear ...

(1843). Smith died of

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

on 15 October 1843, at 11 Mabledon Place, Burton Crescent, London.

Works

After much hack-work, Smith was employed by Léon Curmer of Paris to engrave a number of the woodblocks for his edition of ''

Paul et Virginie ''Paul et Virginie'' (sometimes known in English as ''Paul and Virginia'') is a novel by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, first published in 1788. The novel's title characters are friends since birth who fall in love. The story is set ...

'' (1835). In 1837 he prepared prints for John Antes Latrobe's ''The Solace of Song'' (Seeley & Burnside), a new departure in wood-engraving with a finish contrasting with the crisp work of

Luke Clennell Luke Clennell (8 April 1781 – 9 February 1840) was a British wood-engraver and painter. Life Clennell was born in Ulgham near Morpeth, Northumberland, the son of a farmer. He was apprenticed to the Newcastle upon Tyne wood-engraver Thomas ...

Charlton Nesbit Charlton Nesbit (1775 – 11 November 1838) was a British wood-engraver. Life Nesbit was born in Swalwell in County Durham, the son of a keelman. Nesbit became the wood-engraver Thomas Bewick's apprentice in Newcastle upon Tyne around 1789 ...

, and John Thompson. His contribution to the technique of wood-engraving was admired by contemporary commentators including one, writing in the '' London and Westminster Review'' in 1838, that Orrin Smith was an "able and intelligent cultivator of his art, and has introduced improvements and attempted effects ... which have advanced it."Henry Cole, 'Modern Wood Engraving', '' London and Westminster Review'', July 1838, pp. 145–52 (151). His work was routinely published in both London and Paris. There followed, with other work: *

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( , ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. Biography Born in Mohrun ...

's '': Der Cid nach spanischen Romanzen'', published at Stuttgart, 1839; * an English edition of ''Paul et Virginie'', 1840; *

Christopher Wordsworth Christopher Wordsworth (30 October 180720 March 1885) was an English intellectual and a bishop of the Anglican Church. Life Wordsworth was born in London, the youngest son of Christopher Wordsworth, Master of Trinity, who was the youngest b ...

's ''Greece'', 1840–1; * ''Heads of the People'', by Kenny Meadows; * Shakespeare's ''Works'', in 1839–43, with nearly 1,000 designs by Kenny Meadows. The last two works were part-owned by Smith, with Meadows and

Henry Vizetelly Henry Richard Vizetelly (30 July 18201 January 1894) was a British publisher and writer. He started the publications ''Pictorial Times'' and ''Illustrated Times'', wrote several books while working in Paris and Berlin as correspondent for the ''I ...

Sclavack Peasants from John Paget Hungary and Transylvania 1839

Family

In 1821 Smith married Jane Elizabeth, daughter of

Joseph Barney Joseph Barney (1753 in Wolverhampton – 13 April 1832 in London), was a British painter and engraver. He is usually described as a pupil of Antonio Zucchi and Angelica Kauffman and as a fruit and flower painter to the George IV of the Uni ...

. His widow survived him with four children. Harvey Edward Orrin Smith, the son practised wood-engraving, but then became a director of the firm of James Burn & Co., bookbinders.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John Orrin 1799 births 1843 deaths English engravers People from Colchester