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v SMITZ, Gaspab (called 'Magdalen Smith'), subject and portrait painter. Born in Flanders. He came to England soon after the Restoration to follow his profession, and was induced to visit Ire- land, where he settled. He studied for a lime in Rome. He painted miniature portraits in oil, and attained much repute for their colour, life-like nature, and re- semblance. He was, however, best known by his Magdalens, which were well drawn, and finished in a chaste, clever style, but painted from a woman he kept ana called Lis wife. He ftsually introduced a deli- cately finished thistle in the foreground. There is a Magdalen by him in Painters' Hall, dated 1662. He was also a clever flower-painter. He had high prices for his works, and was fully employed, yet his extravagance kept him always in diffi- culties, and he diea in Dublin, in great distress, in 1707.
SMYTH, John Talfourd, engraver. Was born in Edinburgh, and was a zealous student in the Trustees' Academy there. In 1835 he determined to follow the pro- fession of an engraver, but his master dying in the first year of his pupilage, he was his own teacher, and soon gave proofs of his ability. In 1838 he removed to Glasgow, where he worked on plates which produced him money, without advancing his art, and he was induced to return to Edinburgh, and there gained employment of a higher class. He engraved ( John Knox Dispens- ing the Sacrament.' from Wilkie's unfinished picture: Mulreadys 'School,' from the Vernon collection; Sir William Allan's
- Tartar Robbers Dividing their Spoil.' He
was engaged upon other works of this class, when he died after a short illness, from an attack on the brain. May 18, 1851, aged 32.
SNELLING, Matthew, portrait and miniature painter. Practised in the reign of Charles II. He painted chiefly female heads, but was not of much repute. A portrait of Charles I. by him, dated 1647, was exhibited at Kensington Museum in the Loan Collection, 1862, and there is a passable portrait by him at the College of Physicians.
• SOANE, Sir John. Knt., R. k. } architect. Was the son of a oricklayer, m humble circumstances, and was born near Reading, September 10, 1752. He was educated at Reading, and showing a love of art, was first employed as an errand boy, and then admitted to assist in the office of George Dance, the architect. Subsequently he was employed for a time in Henry Holland's office, where he acquired a practical know- ledge of the profession, remaining with him till 1766. Meanwhile he studied in the schools of the Royal Academy. In 1772 he obtained a silver medal, and. in 1776 the gold medal for his ' Design for a Triumphal
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Bridge,' and was then elected the travelling student. He travelled for three years in Italy, diligently engaged in study, return- ing in the summer of 1780. He was tempted to return at that time by an offer of employment from the capricious Hervey, Earl of Bristol, which he did not realize; but entering into competition for public works he made himself known, and in 1788 gained the appointment of architect and surveyor to the Bank of England^which laid the foundation of his fortune. He bad married in 1788, and through his wife, who died in 1815, he eventually received a con- siderable property.
Success waited upon him. In 1791 he was appointed clerk of the works at St. James's Palace, the Houses of Parliament, and other public buildings; in 1795 archi- tect to the Department of Woods and Forests. Then professional honours came. He was in that year elected an associate, and in 1802 a full member, of the Academy, in 1 806 Professor of Architecture. In 1807 he was appointed clerk of the works to Chelsea Hospital, and erected the new in- firmaries, ana about the same time the new Picture Galleries at Dulwich College. On a commission from the Treasury he made designs, in 1820, for the New Law Courts, in the following year for a Royal Palace on Constitution Hill. The former was carried out, only after long contention, to be after- wards altered; the latter was never pro- ceeded with, to his great chagrin, and pro- bably the public loss. Buckingham Palace was patched up instead. In 1831 he was knighted, and in 1836 completed the State Paper Office, his last work.
He had been fortunate in holding the first professional appointments, hadamassed a fortune, built a house for himself in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and made it a store- house of art-treasures; but he was not without his share of the world's troubles. Of two sons, one died young, the other lived to be a constant irritation and annoy- ance, and his obstinate temper found a con- solation in disinheriting his only surviving child. Arrived at 80 years of asp, his sight failed, and in 1833 he resigned all his ap- pointments and professional engagements. He had long contemplated leaving his col- lections, with his house, to the nation, for the benefit of his profession, and he lived to see his intentions carried out under the sanction of a private Act of Parliament. He died at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, now ' The Soane Museum,' January 20, 1837, aged 84. He was buried in the ground belonging to St. Giles-in-the-Fields, adjoining the Old Church, St. Pancras.
His art was founded on the Greek, its proportions pleasing, its masses broad and simple, the arrangements well considered and convenient to their intended uses, but
