The Hand of the Royal Court Born in London, Herbert Luther Smith entered the world as the son of the painter Anker Smith. His path was carved early through the halls of the Royal Academy schools, where he arrived in 1826. He did not merely study there; he excelled, securing medals in 1828 and 1830. This early success signaled a talent for the precise and the formal, a skill that would eventually bring him into the intimate orbit of the…