Thomas SMITH of DERBY (1720-1767)

Matlock High-Torr Landscape

oil on canvas

27 x 34.5 inches;
34 x 41.5 inches, inc. frame

Price: £16,500 GBP

Thomas Smith of Derby was an English landscape painter famed for his paintings and engravings of historic houses and views of the Lake District. Though few paintings of the artist survive to this day, his engravings have been preserved in renowned collections including the Royal Academy, the British Museum, and the Yale Museum. He is a pivotal figure in the genesis of the English picturesque.

His series of ‘Eight of the most extraordinary Natural Prospects in the Mountainous Part of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, commonly called the Peak’ are the earliest prints to depict features of the English countryside as pure landscape in its own right. His landscape of Matlock High-Torr continues to build upon this tradition. The Peak district attracted many tourists in the mid-eighteenth century, who journeyed to see the severe landscapes encapsulated so beautifully by Thomas Smith of Derby. That by 1751 Smith had published a total of fifty large prints of English topographical scenes attests to the popularity of this genre.

This oil painting by the artist is a rare relic of Smith working in the medium and brings to life the melancholic landscape of Matlock High-Torr, which he also recorded as an engraving.