Portrait of a Man

Artist John Smart (English, 1741 - 1811)

Date1801

MediumWatercolor on ivory; Bracelet insert with gold bezel

DimensionsSight: 3 1/8 × 2 1/2 inches (7.94 × 6.35 cm)
Framed: 3 1/8 × 2 1/2 inches (7.94 × 6.35 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Starr Foundation, Inc.

Object numberF65-41/42

InscribedInscribed on recto, lower right: "J.S. / 1801".

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionPortrait miniature of a man wearing a dark gray coat before a gray-brown background.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

John Smart—Miniaturist: 1741/2–1811, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 9, 1965–January 2, 1966, no cat., as Gentleman.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 134, as Unknown Man.

John Smart: Virtuoso in Miniature, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 21, 2024–January 4, 2026, no cat., as Portrait of a Man.

Provenance

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1965;

Their gift to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1965.

Published References

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 134, p. 47, (repro.), as Unknown Man.

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Portrait of a Man, 1801,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 4, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1618.

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