Lot 214: ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN SMIBERT 1688 - 1751

oil on canvas Edmund Quincy was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in1681, graduated from Harvard in 1699, and became aSupreme Court judge in 1718, a position he held until his1738 death from smallpox in London. His family foundedwhat is now the Boston suburb of Quincy, Massachusetts.John Smibert was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, workingfirst as a coach painter in London, then as a copyist. Helearned to draw through that experience, refining histechnique at Sir James Thornhill's Academy. In 1719 hewent to Italy, where he studied and copied the OldMasters, especially Titian and Raphael. He became amoderately successful portrait painter in London, taughtfine arts to the Indians in Bermuda, and wound up inBoston, marrying an heiress and rapidly becomingsuccessful. By the age of 40 he was considered one of thebest portrait painters in Colonial America, painting some275 portraits in 17 years.As noted in Henry Wilder Foote's biography ofSmibert, this portrait of Judge Quincy was painted circa1733, "according to family tradition, corroborated bythe apparent age of the subject...Smibert painted twoportraits of Edmund Quincy in his official dress. One,inherited by President Quincy (John Quincy Adams), [is] inthe Art Museum in Boston; the other...was given to EdmundQuincy, youngest son of the President. It was muchinjured by the British."