Smart, John, RSA
1838 – 1899
His father Robert Campbell Smart was an engraver, and may have taught him the rudiments of the craft.
After attending the Circus Place School and then Leith High School, young Smart was apprenticed to an unnamed engraver but finding that his own artistic inclinations were not being satisfied, entered instead the studio of Horatio McCulloch in 1850 and spent the next two or three years there learning about landscape painting from his master, and like him often painted in the open air.
He attended the Trustees Academy from 1853 until 1858.
He also produced a number of paintings particularly watercolours of Sporting scenes namely golf and curling, being a founder member of the Royal Scottish Society for Painters in Watercolour (RSW).
He also produced illustrations for various publications the best known being "The Golfing Greens of Scotland".
Like William Brodie RSA he was a member of the semi-literary and convivial club 'The Monks of St Giles,' ' where he was known as Father Canvasso. In 1868 he co-illustrated a volume of ditties, 'Mistura Curiosa,' penned by fellow club member Father Crucelli [Dr James Archibald Sidey MD].
He exhibited at the RSA from 1860 until 1899, he was elected an Associate Member of the RSA in 1871 and rose to full Academician rank just a few years later in 1877.
