{
"data": {
"id": 160113,
"accession_number": "1997.77",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait of General Keith MacAlister, c. 1800\u20131810. John I Smart (British, 1741\u20131811). Watercolor and graphite, heightened with traces of white gouache, on paper; image: 13.2 x 11.4 cm (5 3/16 x 4 1/2 in.); sheet: 17.4 x 14 cm (6 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, 1997.77",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Portrait of General Keith MacAlister",
"creation_date": "c. 1800\u20131810",
"creation_date_earliest": 1795,
"creation_date_latest": 1810,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"England, 18th century"
],
"technique": "watercolor and graphite, heightened with traces of white gouache, on paper",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "cream(3) wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - British",
"type": "Portrait Miniature",
"measurements": "Image: 13.2 x 11.4 cm (5 3/16 x 4 1/2 in.); Sheet: 17.4 x 14 cm (6 7/8 x 5 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.174,
"width": 0.14
},
"image": {
"height": 0.132,
"width": 0.114
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "across bottom, in graphite: Genl Macalester ; VERSO, center, in graphite: 169; lower left, in graphite: l. 159. [circled]",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 202388,
"title": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives",
"description": "Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-11-10T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "John Smart (1741-1811), by inheritance to his son John James Smart",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "-1811",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "John James Smart (1805-1870), by inheritance to his daughter Mary Ann Bose",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1811-70",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Mary Ann Bose (n\u00e9e Smart, 1856\u20131934) by inheritance to her daughter Lilian Mary Dyer, great-granddaughter of the artist",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1870-1934",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Lilian Mary Dyer (n\u00e9e Bose, 1876-1955)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1934-37",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "Sale: Christie\u2019s, London, November 26, 1937 (lot 54)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "November 26, 1937",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "(Colnaghi, London)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "After 1937",
"sortorder": 6
},
{
"description": "Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, by inheritance to his daughter Helen Perry",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "Before 1957",
"sortorder": 7
},
{
"description": "Helen Perry (n\u00e9e Greene, 1911-1996), Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "c. 1957-96",
"sortorder": 8
},
{
"description": "Held in trust by the Estate of Helen Perry, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1996-1997",
"sortorder": 9
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1997-",
"sortorder": 10
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Sketches helped John Smart work out the particulars of a portrait before commencing the miniature on ivory; they were useful in the event that a duplicate might later be required.",
"description": "Although it is impossible to say if it was always part of the artist\u2019s process to execute a preparatory sketch prior to painting each miniature, we do know that John Smart retained many hundreds of these sketches. A great number were inherited by his son John James Smart, who in turn left them to his daughter Mary Ann Bose. Upon her death in 1934, they were divided between three of her children: William Henry Bose, Lilian Dyer, and Mabel Annie Busteed.
General MacAlister is represented in three-quarter view, bust length, and facing the right. His eyes are blue, but the right eye is clouded and lighter in color than the left. There is no sign of isolated damage or fading, confirming that this color difference was among MacAlister\u2019s physical attributes. He wears a brown coat; white, frilled vest edged in black; tall collar; and a white cravat tied in a bow. His closely cropped hair is powdered, and an unidentified rocky landscape through which a small river runs is painted in the background; it probably represents a place of personal significance in Scotland or India, possibly even Seringapatam and the Cauvery River. Smart depicted MacAlister inside of a penciled oval tromp l\u2019oeil frame. The drawing is replete with physically informative details and is larger and more finished than drawings intended to function exclusively as preparatory sketches, though it may also have served this purpose. Beneath the elaborate penciled border is written in large graphite script \u201cGenl Macalester.\u201d This inscription is not in the artist\u2019s hand and almost certainly a later addition. A Colnaghi label was removed from the verso after the work entered the museum\u2019s collection.
The sitter is likely Major-General Keith MacAlister (1746\u20131820) of the Madras Cavalry. He was the eldest of three soldier brothers who served with distinction in India. MacAlister was born at Skerrinish in the Isle of Skye and ascended through the ranks rapidly following his appointment as cadet in 1777. He became captain in 1796; lieutenant-colonel in 1799; colonel in 1809; and major-general in 1812. He is celebrated particularly for his role in the 1799 storming and capture of Seringapatam, a decisive battleground in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, and for rescuing his brother Matthew from a long imprisonment in the same city. MacAlister was also instrumental in organizing the Madras Light Cavalry.5 Smart\u2019s portrait of MacAlister would have been painted between 1800 and 1810, when the sitter was an older man and had returned to England before settling in Scotland.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art owns a Smart portrait on ivory called Keith Michael Alexander, dated 1810. Although he wears a military uniform rather than civilian clothes, the sitter is identical to the one in the Cleveland drawing\u2014note in particular the differently colored eyes and the blue veins at the left temple. Although it was painted in 1810, possibly some years after the Cleveland sketch, the sitter\u2019s hair loss is more pronounced in the earlier drawing. This inconsistency can be explained by the fact that Regency fashion called for men to comb their hair forward, thereby obscuring baldness, as seen here. Otherwise, the portraits are so similar that it is likely that Smart was consulting the earlier finished drawing when executing the 1810 miniature in ivory.
Both \u201cGeneral Macalister\u201d and \u201cColonel Keith Michael Alexander\u201d are listed by Daphne Foskett among Smart\u2019s sitters, but she reproduces images only of the latter Nelson-Atkins miniature. No additional portraits of the period depicting gentlemen of either name have been discovered at this time. The Nelson-Atkins ivory has been called Keith Michael Alexander by tradition at least since it was in the Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr collection before entering the museum in 1958. However, the miniature has not been removed from the frame since its acquisition, and there is no evidence of an inscription. It is likely that Keith Michael Alexander is a mistaken interpretation of the name Keith MacAlister, particularly because no record of a soldier by the name of Keith Michael Alexander has been discovered.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79980805"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1997.77-portrait-of-general"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Christie, Manson & Woods. Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings. 1937.",
"page_number": "lot 54",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Foskett, Daphne. John Smart: the Man and His Miniatures. [London]: Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1964.",
"page_number": "pp. 70, 89",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013.",
"page_number": "Cat. no. 49, pp. 199-203",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.77",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.77/1997.77_web.jpg",
"width": "723",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "96621",
"filename": "1997.77_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.77/1997.77_print.jpg",
"width": "2751",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "1802498",
"filename": "1997.77_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.77/1997.77_full.tif",
"width": "5765",
"height": "7125",
"filesize": "123249100",
"filename": "1997.77_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [
{
"date_created": "2005-02-07T15:48:57",
"annotation": "",
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt0_web.jpg",
"width": "771",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "513770"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt0_print.jpg",
"width": "2934",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "6808721"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt0_full.tif",
"width": "3322",
"height": "3849",
"filesize": "38382812"
}
},
{
"date_created": "2009-10-02T19:42:55",
"annotation": "",
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt1_web.jpg",
"width": "772",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "468560"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt1_print.jpg",
"width": "2940",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "7366844"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt1_full.tif",
"width": "3901",
"height": "4512",
"filesize": "52836480"
}
},
{
"date_created": "2009-10-02T19:42:24",
"annotation": "",
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt2_web.jpg",
"width": "720",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "396606"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt2_print.jpg",
"width": "2742",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "6956767"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt2_full.tif",
"width": "4800",
"height": "5950",
"filesize": "85705616"
}
},
{
"date_created": "2011-05-06T16:24:25",
"annotation": "",
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt3_web.jpg",
"width": "741",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "382054"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt3_print.jpg",
"width": "2821",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "6854368"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt3_full.tif",
"width": "4260",
"height": "5134",
"filesize": "65637900"
}
},
{
"date_created": "2013-02-19T15:21:14",
"annotation": "",
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt4_web.jpg",
"width": "717",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "67128"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt4_print.jpg",
"width": "2729",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "1482265"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt4_full.tif",
"width": "5748",
"height": "7160",
"filesize": "123489296"
}
},
{
"date_created": "2013-02-19T16:11:42",
"annotation": "",
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt5_web.jpg",
"width": "670",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "116186"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt5_print.jpg",
"width": "2550",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "1956457"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/alternate/1997.77/1997.77_alt5_full.tif",
"width": "6000",
"height": "8000",
"filesize": "144022056"
}
}
],
"creditline": "Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 160113,
"creators": [
{
"id": 3691,
"description": "John I Smart (British, 1741\u20131811)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "John Smart is often regarded as the most skilled painter of portrait miniatures at the height of the art form\u2019s popularity in late-eighteenth-century Britain. While the free style and white and blue color palette of his rival Richard Cosway (1742\u20131821) conjured up the glamour of fashionable society, Smart\u2019s attention to minute detail, saturated colors, and frank conveyance of likeness and character attracted a different type of clientele, one who prized these qualities
above Cosway\u2019s homogenized modishness.
Information is limited about Smart\u2019s life and career, so much so that while G. C. Williamson had penned the definitive biographies of Cosway, George Engleheart (1752\u20131829), and Andrew Plimer (1763\u20131837) by 1905, it wasn\u2019t until 1964 that a biography of Smart appeared. Little is known about the artist\u2019s early training beyond evidence suggesting that before the age of fourteen, he was winning prizes from the Society of Arts for his drawings and, like Cosway, was an apprentice in William Shipley\u2019s London school in St. Martin\u2019s Lane. Smart exhibited for several years as an active member and eventually president of the Society of Artists of Great Britain before seeking his fortune as a miniature painter in India, where he lived between 1785 and 1795, hoping to secure patronage from wealthy princes and those
involved in England\u2019s growing trade market. Works from this period are signed with the initial I, signifying India.
Unlike Cosway, an ostentatious showman, Smart lived and worked quietly, settling in London after his return from India and exhibiting at the Royal Academy. His style, which changed little throughout his career, is characterized by a meticulous description of a sitter\u2019s countenance through the use of delicate stippling, often featuring wrinkles, crow\u2019s feet around the eyes, and a slightly upturned mouth that suggests joviality. Unlike his contemporaries Cosway, Engleheart, and Plimer, whose backgrounds most often featured blue and white cloudy skies, Smart painted his backgrounds in varying shades of browns, greens, and grays. The size of the artist\u2019s miniatures expanded over time, measuring around 11/ 2 inches until about 1775, then 2 inches until around 1790, and 3 inches thereafter. Though
highly sought after in his time, Smart\u2019s work grew even more popular among collectors following his death. The Cleveland Museum of Art has a total of twenty-three portraits by Smart: seven gentlemen sitters painted on ivory and sixteen preparatory drawings of men and women. Of the seven miniatures on ivory, two date from 1770, three from
Smart\u2019s years in India, and two after his 1795 return to London.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1741",
"death_year": "1811",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1997-06-02T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1795,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1800\u20131810",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"General Macalester"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:02:27.603000"
}
}