James Smetham comes from the small market town of Paterley Bridge in Yorkshire, England and went to secondary school in Leeds. Actually he wanted to become an architect and therefore he was apprenticed by the famous architect, antiquarian and mayor of Lincoln. But when he felt that other interests were stronger in him, in the year 1843, he started a study at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He tried himself as a portrait painter for some time and also had some success with this genre. However, the photography that was developing at this time made him fierce competition and the clientele ordered less and less painted portraits. He was therefore forced to earn his living elsewhere and in 1851 took a job as a drawing teacher at Weshleyan Normal College in the town of Westminster. There he met Sarah Goble, who worked as a teacher at the same college. In 1854 he married her and the couple had six children.
In addition to his work at college, Smetham continued to work as a painter. He occupied himself with different genres, painted portraits and often landscapes, made woodcuts, etchings, copperplate engravings and book illustrations. He also painted thousands of miniatures in stamp size. In addition, he joined the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in London in 1848, a reform movement with the aim of moving away from what they considered to be the mechanical approaches of artists such as Raffael and Michelangelo. James Letham also wrote essays, poems, reviews and articles. His probably most famous paintings are "The Hymn of the last Supper" and "The Death of Earl Siward". Smetham was a very pious Methodist and very often dealt with religious topics.
In 1857 the painter suffered a nervous breakdown and after that his religious zeal became stronger and stronger and gradually took on the form of a mania. For some time, for example, he tried to illustrate each Bible verse. He also suffered from depressions and engaged in religious self-analysis. In 1877 he had another violent breakdown and went insane. For the last few years he lived in isolation in his house in Stoke Newington. Posthumously Smetham's widow published letters, diaries and notebooks of the painter.
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.jpg "Evening Pasture, c.1860-70 by James Smetham")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-100414).jpg "Saul Hiding among the Stuff, 1866 by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Poets Rest Place by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Jacob At Bethal by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Many Wintered Crow, 1880 by James Smetham")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-13140).jpg "Lovers in Richmond Park (Windsor Park) by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Many Wintered Crow by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Christ at Emmaus by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Days of Noah by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Imogen and the Shepherds,")
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.jpg "Evening Pasture by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Evening Pasture by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Anna Kull by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Imogen and the Shepherds, 1860-1870 by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Saving of a Soul by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Imogen and the Shepherds by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Unknown Image by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Artist Sketching by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Imogen and the Shepherds, from Cymbeline, Act IV, Scene ii by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Lovers in Richmond Park by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Unknown Image by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Hummingbird by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Knight")
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.jpg "The Death of Earl Siward by James Smetham")
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_(oil_on_panel)_-_(MeisterDrucke-899624).jpg "Lovers in Richmond Park by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Ullswater by James Smetham")
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_par_Smetham_James_(1821-1889)_ca_186_-_(MeisterDrucke-1028671).jpg "Pandora by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Seaside Gossips by James Smetham")
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.jpg "Dante and Virgil in Vallombrosa by James Smetham")
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.jpg "The Last Supper by James Smetham")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1126967).jpg "Landscape with a Temple and Pastoral Figures by James Smetham")
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