id: 160113 accession number: 1997.77 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.77 updated: 2025-02-09 05:26:05.431000 Portrait of General Keith MacAlister, c. 1800–1810. John I Smart (British, 1741–1811). 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 title: Portrait of General Keith MacAlister title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1800–1810 creation date earliest: 1795 creation date latest: 1810 current location: creditline: Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: watercolor and graphite, heightened with traces of white gouache, on paper department: Drawings collection: DR - British type: Portrait Miniature find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * John I Smart (British, 1741–1811) - artist John Smart is often regarded as the most skilled painter of portrait miniatures at the height of the art form’s popularity in late-eighteenth-century Britain. While the free style and white and blue color palette of his rival Richard Cosway (1742–1821) conjured up the glamour of fashionable society, Smart’s 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’s homogenized modishness.
Information is limited about Smart’s life and career, so much so that while G. C. Williamson had penned the definitive biographies of Cosway, George Engleheart (1752–1829), and Andrew Plimer (1763–1837) by 1905, it wasn’t until 1964 that a biography of Smart appeared. Little is known about the artist’s 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’s London school in St. Martin’s 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’s 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’s countenance through the use of delicate stippling, often featuring wrinkles, crow’s 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’s 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’s 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’s years in India, and two after his 1795 return to London. --- 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: cream(3) wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: across bottom, in graphite: Genl Macalester ; VERSO, center, in graphite: 169; lower left, in graphite: l. 159. [circled] translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives opening date: 2013-11-10T00:00:00 Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE John Smart (1741-1811), by inheritance to his son John James Smart date: -1811 footnotes: citations: John James Smart (1805-1870), by inheritance to his daughter Mary Ann Bose date: 1811-70 footnotes: citations: Mary Ann Bose (née Smart, 1856–1934) by inheritance to her daughter Lilian Mary Dyer, great-granddaughter of the artist date: 1870-1934 footnotes: citations: Lilian Mary Dyer (née Bose, 1876-1955) date: 1934-37 footnotes: citations: Sale: Christie’s, London, November 26, 1937 (lot 54) date: November 26, 1937 footnotes: citations: (Colnaghi, London) date: After 1937 footnotes: citations: Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH, by inheritance to his daughter Helen Perry date: Before 1957 footnotes: citations: Helen Perry (née Greene, 1911-1996), Cleveland, OH date: c. 1957-96 footnotes: citations: Held in trust by the Estate of Helen Perry, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1996-1997 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art. date: 1997- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Christie, Manson & Woods. Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings. 1937. page number: lot 54 url: Foskett, Daphne. John Smart: the Man and His Miniatures. [London]: Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1964. page number: pp. 70, 89 url: Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. page number: Cat. no. 49, pp. 199-203 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.77/1997.77_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.77/1997.77_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.77/1997.77_full.tif