Paul Smith is Professor of History of Art at the University of Warwick. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, a visiting scholar and a scholar at the Getty Research Institute.

Paul Smith studied for his PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art under the supervision of Robert Ratcliffe, the eminent but obscure Cézanne scholar. Before that, he took his undergraduate degree at University College London, where he was taught aesthetics by the philosopher, Richard Wollheim. Both have had a lasting influence on his research.

Paul Smith works mostly on later 19th century French painting, and the theories that help explain it. He is also interested in the literature of the period, particularly recherché novels about art.