Portrait of a Girl

Artist John Smart (English, 1741 - 1811)

Date1769

MediumWatercolor on ivory; Gilt copper alloy case with blue glass over embossed foil, braided hair in back

DimensionsSight: 1 1/2 × 1 3/16 inches (3.81 × 3.02 cm)
Framed: 2 7/8 × 2 1/2 inches (7.3 × 6.35 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Starr Foundation, Inc.

Object numberF65-41/10

InscribedInscribed on recto, lower left: "J.S. / 1769."

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionPortrait miniature of a young woman with natural hair wearing a pink gown and blue sash.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 Young Lady.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 95, as Unknown Young Lady.

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 Girl.

Provenance

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.

Published References

Leo Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe (Graz: Akademische Druck, 1964), 2:1044, pl. 540, (repro.), as Young Lady Wearing a Fur Trimmed Dress and a Pearl Trimmed Turban.

Daphne Foskett, “Miniatures by John Smart: The Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum,” Antiques 90, no. 3 (September 1966): 354, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 95, p. 37, (repro.), as Unknown Young Lady.

Blythe Sobol, “John Smart, Portrait of a Girl, 1769,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1524.

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