John Smith, Speaker of the House of Commons

Godfrey Kneller's portrait of John Smith, Speaker of the House of Commons of 1707 depicts one of the most powerful parliamentary figures of the early Georgian period, whose speakership bridged the constitutional crisis of the succession and the political innovations of the Whig parliamentary system. Kneller's official portraits of parliamentary and governmental figures constituted a visual record of British political life from the Restoration through the early Hanoverian period, his studio producing work at a scale and consistency unmatched by any other British painter of the era.

Kneller renders the Speaker with characteristic fluency and the dignified formality appropriate to the office. The practiced efficiency of his portrait technique—the result of decades of prolific output—creates a compelling official likeness.