Portrait of a Man

Artist John Smart (English, 1741 - 1811)

Date1794

MediumWatercolor on ivory; Gilt copper alloy case with fausse montre top

DimensionsSight: 2 11/16 × 2 1/4 inches (6.83 × 5.72 cm)
Framed (case closed): 3 7/8 × 2 1/2 inches (9.84 × 6.35 cm)
Framed (case open): 2 15/16 × 5 15/16 inches (7.46 × 15.08 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Starr Foundation, Inc.

Object numberF65-41/35

InscribedInscribed on recto, lower left: “JS. / 1794 / I”.

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionPortrait miniature of a many with powdered hair wearing a brown coat before a cloud sky 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. 127, 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

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

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 125, p. 45, (repro.), as Unknown Man.

Blythe Sobol, “John Smart, Portrait of a Man, 1794,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1602.

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