James Smetham, painter and Pre-Raphaelite associate. was born in Yorkshire and went on to study at the Royal Academy Schools in 1843. He first exhibited in Liverpool in 1848 and between 1851-1869 twelve times at the R.A. In 1851 he obtained a teaching post at the Wesleyan Normal college where he met his future wife also a teacher, and married in 1854. He was taught to etch by William Bell Scott and attempted book illustration around 1859 culminating in having his own “Studies from an Artist’s sketch book” published in approximately quarterly intervals between 1860-61. This consisted of 12 etchings on steel published by Williams & Lloyd and later published in book form in 1862. Two oil paintings were rejected by the R.A. for the exhibition in 1871 but praised by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and they soon became friends and painted together in Rossetti’s studio weekly for a number of years. Smetham’s work was also championed by John Ruskin and a series of letters was exchanged between them. Books of interest include:- Letters of James Smetham. 1891. Literary works of James Smetham. 1893. Some reflections of the Career of James Smetham, with a catalogue of his pictures by Morchard Bishop, 1974.