John Rubens Smith (January 23, 1775 – August 21, 1849) was a London-born painter, printmaker and art instructor who worked in the United States.

Smith later studied art at the Royal Academy.

He depicted the United States in the decades before photography, and influenced a generation of American artists through his drawing academies and drawing manuals.

His son John Rowson Smith was a moving panorama painter who worked with Richard Risley Carlisle.

This article about a painter from the United States is a stub.