Smibert (John) is born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

John Smibart studies art in London and Italy, emigrates first to Bermuda, and arrives in Boston in Boston in 1730. In Boston, He marries Mary Williams, and establishes his home, studio, and shop near today’s 1 Washington Mall (then on the east corner of Brattle Street and Cornhill). The first academically-trained painter in Boston, Smibert also runs the first artist supply store in the Colonies. He becomes the foremost portrait painter in Boston, completing some 250 paintings, and is later described by art historian Arthur Dexter as working in “A Puritan society (which) was not favorable to art.” Smibart dies in Boston on April 2, 1751.