id: 160121 accession number: 1997.82 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1997.82 updated: 2025-08-08 00:54:02.127000 Portrait of a Woman, c. 1775. John I Smart (British, 1741–1811). Gray and red wash over graphite, heightened with white gouache on laid paper; sheet: 5.4 x 4.7 cm (2 1/8 x 1 7/8 in.); secondary support: 5.3 x 4.8 cm (2 1/16 x 1 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry 1997.82 title: Portrait of a Woman title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1775 creation date earliest: 1770 creation date latest: 1779 current location: creditline: Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry copyright: --- culture: England, 18th century technique: gray and red wash over graphite, heightened with white gouache on laid 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: Sheet: 5.4 x 4.7 cm (2 1/8 x 1 7/8 in.); Secondary Support: 5.3 x 4.8 cm (2 1/16 x 1 7/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: beige(1) laid paper, discolored to yellow-brown, laid down on light brown wove paper watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: verso, in bottom half, in graphite: Anne of / Denmark ; in top half, in graphite: 141 [upside down] inscribed in graphite on verso of drawing, at top: very dark brown hair / . . . ry . . .; inscribed in brown ink on verso of drawing: to be set[s?] in . . . / and put in a Black / Frame largest . . . / [G . . .’s?] Size 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 * {'description': 'Royal Amateur Art Society Exhibition of Miniatures, Moncorvo House, London (March 5-8, 1904).', 'opening_date': '1904-03-05T00:00:00'} --- PROVENANCE John Smart (1741-1811), by inheritance to his daughter Sarah Smart date: Until 1811 footnotes: citations: Sarah Smart (1781-1853), daughter of the artist by Sarah Midgeley, gifted to Mary Smirke date: 1811-c. 1853 footnotes: citations: Mary Smirke (d. 1853, Slough), by inheritance to her brother Sydney Smirke date: c. 1853 footnotes: citations: Sydney Smirke (1798-1877), by inheritance to his daughter Mrs. Lange date: 1853-77 footnotes: citations: Mrs. Lange (née Smirke, d. 1928), by inheritance to her brother Edward Smirke date: 1877-1928 footnotes: citations: Edward Smirke date: 1928 footnotes: citations: Sale: Christie’s, London, December 10, 1928 (lot 9) date: December 10, 1928 footnotes: citations: Leo Schidlof (1886-1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene date: 1928 footnotes: citations: Edward B. Greene (1878-1957), Cleveland, OH by inheritance to his daughter Helen Perry date: 1929-c. 1957 footnotes: citations: Helen Perry, (née Greene, 1911-1996), Cleveland, Oh date: c. 1957-96 footnotes: citations: Estate of Mrs. A. Dean Perry (Helen Perry), gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1996-97 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1997- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Christie, Manson & Woods. Ancient & Modern Pictures and Miniature Portraits. 1928. page number: lot 9 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. 38, pp. 170-171 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.82/1997.82_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.82/1997.82_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1997.82/1997.82_full.tif