Joseph Smit (18 July 1836 – 4 November 1929) was a Dutch zoological

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

. L.B. Holthuis, Leiden, (1958, 1995) ''Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, 1820 - 1958''. page 47
reprint manuscript, PDF

Background

Smit was born in

Lisse Lisse () is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the Western Netherlands. The municipality, which lies within the Duin- en Bollenstreek, covers an area of of which is water. Its population was in . Located within the mun ...

. He received his first commission from

Hermann Schlegel Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German ornithologist, herpetologist and ichthyologist. Early life and education Schlegel was born at Altenburg, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimula ...

at the Leiden Museum to work on the lithographs for a book on the birds of the Dutch East Indies. In 1866 he was invited to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

Philip Sclater Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an England, English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological ...

to do the lithography for Sclater's ''Exotic Ornithology''; he prepared a hundred images for the book. He also did the lithography for his friend

Joseph Wolf Joseph Wolf (22 January 1820 – 20 April 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Livi ...

's ''Zoological Sketches'', as well as

Daniel Giraud Elliot Daniel Giraud Elliot (March 7, 1835 – December 22, 1915) was an American zoologist and the founder of the American Ornithologist Union. Life He was born in New York City on March 7, 1835, to George and Rebecca Elliot. In 1858, he married Ann ...

's monographs on the

Phasianidae The Phasianidae are a family (biology), family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, Turkey bird, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular Game (hunti ...

and

Paradisaeidae The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species are found in eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. The family has 44 species in 17 genera. The members of this ...

. Beginning in the 1870s, he worked on the ''Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum'' (1874–1898, edited by

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mono ...

), and later on Lord Lilford's ''Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands''. Smit contributed illustrations to

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

's books on birds of different parts of the world, along with leading

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

wildlife artists including Wolf,

Edward Lear Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

, William Hart,

Henry Constantine Richter Henry Constantine Richter (7 June 1821 – 16 March 1902) was an English zoological illustrator who produced a very large number of skillful coloured lithographs of birds and mammals, mainly for the scientific books of the renowned English 1 ...

and J.G. Keulemans. He also provided many of the illustrations of dinosaurs and other fossil creatures for the popular book ''Extinct Monsters'' (1892) by Henry Neville Hutchinson. He died in his home on Cobden Hill,

Radlett Radlett is a village in Hertfordshire, England, between Elstree and St Albans on Watling Street, with a population of 8,042. It is in the council district of Hertsmere in the south of the county, and is covered by two wards; Aldenham East and ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, United Kingdom on 4 November 1929 at age 93.

Family

His son

Pierre Jacques Smit The Reverend Pierre Jacques Smit (1863–1960), who often signed his works Peter Smit, Peter J. Smit, or P.J. Smit, was a natural history illustrator of the Victorian era in England. Life and work Smit was born in Leiderdorp, Holland, the son ...

(born October 1863 at Leiderdorp – 1960), who used the name Peter Smit, was also a zoological illustrator.

References

External links

Illustrations from Smit in ''The Ibis.''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smit, Joseph 1836 births 1929 deaths Dutch illustrators People from Lisse Dutch bird artists 19th-century Dutch painters Dutch male painters 20th-century Dutch painters People from Radlett 19th-century Dutch male artists 20th-century Dutch male artists

Background

Family

See also

References

External links