Nathaniel Smibert

Nathaniel Smibert, was an American colonial artist in Boston, Province of Massachusetts, active in the mid-18th century. He is considered to be the first portrait painter in America.

Biography

Born in Boston in 1734, Nathaniel Smibert trained as a painter with his father, artist John Smibert. He painted several portraits, notably of Ezra Stiles, architect Peter Harrison, and Dorothy Wendell. Smibert died young in 1756, at the age of twenty-two.