Portrait of Mr. Dickinson

John Smart (1741–1811), London, by around 1783–1811;

By descent to his son, John James Smart (1805–1870), London, 1811–1870;

By descent to his daughter, Mary Ann Bose (née Smart, 1856–1934), Edinburgh, 1870–1934;

By descent to her daughter, Mabel Annie Busteed (née Bose, 1878–1967), Essex, 1934–1936;

Sold at her sale, Sketches and Studies for Miniature Portraits by John Smart, Christie’s, London, December 17, 1936, lot 16, as Mr. Dickenson [1];

Unknown man, by November 25, 1952 [2];

Sold at his posthumous sale, Fine Miniatures, Objects of Vertu, Gold Boxes, Etc., Sotheby’s, London, November 25th, 1952, lot 44, as Mr. Dickinson;

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958 [3];

Their gift to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] Lot 16 also included “Head of Judge Jasper Yeates (1745–1817), which the Starrs also acquired. They sold this drawing in 1982. See Maggie Keenan, “John Smart, A Preparatory Sketch for a Miniature of Judge Yates, ca. 1765,” in The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Supplement: Starr Miniatures in Other Collections), ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://nelson-atkins.org/starrsupp/Other-Locations/4790/.

[2] According to the 1952 sales catalogue, lots 1–55 were “The Property of a Gentleman (decd.).”

[3] It is possible the Starrs acquired the miniature from the 1952 auction. See catalogue entry n. 4.