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Portrait of John Buck of Halifax
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Portrait of John Buck of Halifax

Artist John Smart (English, 1741 - 1811)
Date1802
MediumWatercolor on ivory; Gilt copper alloy slide case with hair reserve and monogram
DimensionsSight: 3 1/16 × 2 7/16 inches (7.78 × 6.19 cm)
Framed: 3 5/16 × 2 3/4 inches (8.41 × 6.99 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Starr Foundation, Inc.
Object numberF65-41/43
InscribedInscribed on recto, lower right. “J.S. / 1802”. Inscribed with monogram on case verso: "RE".
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 128
Collections
DescriptionPortrait miniature of a man with powdered hair wearing a blue coat before a gray background.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 Called Richard Lovell Edgeworth.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 135, as Richard Lovell Edgeworth.

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 John Buck of Halifax.

Provenance

With Leo Schidlof (1866–1966), Vienna, by 1925 [1];

His sale, Versteigerung vom 5. bis 7. November 1925 in Leo Schidlof’s Kunstauktionshaus, Leo Schidlof’s Kunstauktionshaus, Vienna, November 5–7, 1925, lot 321 [2];

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

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

Notes

[1] Leo Schidlof was an Austrian art dealer and art historian known to the Starrs. Schidlof’s book on portrait miniatures, The Miniature in Europe in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries (Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1964) was published in several languages.

[2] The lot is described as “Bildnis eines Herrn in blauem Rock, In Goldmedaillon. Sign.: J.S. 1802. Elfenbein, oval, 7.8 : 6.2 cm” and reproduced on table 7 of the catalogue

Published References

Versteigerung vom 5. bis 7. November 1925 in Leo Schidlof’s Kunstauktionshaus (Vienna: Leo Schidlof’s Kunstauktionshaus, November 5–7, 1925), 33, table 7, (repro.), as Bildnis eines Herrn in blauem Rock.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 135, p. 47, (repro.), as Richard Lovell Edgeworth.

Blythe Sobol, “John Smart, Portrait of John Buck of Halifax, 1802,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1620.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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