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Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Smibert was a painter and architect who established an early tradition of colonial portraiture in Boston. He was apprenticed to a house painter in Edinburgh, leaving for London in 1709. From 1713 to 1716 Smibert studied at London’s Great Queen Street’s Academy. He then spent three years working as a professional portrait painter in Edinburgh. Smibert traveled in Italy from 1719 to 1722, studying and copying paintings in Roman and Florentine art collections and purchasing works for his collection. Upon his return to Britain he set up shop in London, keeping a studio in the Covent Garden district between 1725 and 1728. That year Smibert accompanied Irish philosopher and Anglican churchman Dean George Berkeley on an unsuccessful mission to estab