Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Smitz, Caspar
SMITZ, CASPAR (d. 1707?), painter, is believed to have been a native of Flanders. About 1660 he came to London, where he gained a reputation for his small portraits in oil, groups of fruit and flowers, and especially pictures of the penitent Magdalene, in the foreground of which he usually introduced a large and carefully painted thistle plant. From his works of this class he received the sobriquet of ‘Magdalene’ Smith; several of them were engraved by John Smith, P. Schenk, and E. Petit. Being induced by a lady who had been his pupil to remove to Ireland, Smitz practised there during the latter part of his life. Though his art was admired and well remunerated, he was always impecunious, and died in poverty in Dublin about 1707. Among his pupils were William Gandy [q. v.] and James Maubert.
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (Dallaway and Wornum); Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon.]