Portrait of James Fittler
Framed: 6 5/16 × 6 5/16 inches (16.03 × 16.03 cm)
- 128
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1806, no. 701, as Mr. Fittler.
Internationale Miniaturen-Austellung in der Albertina Wien, Albertina, Vienna, May–June 1924, no. 840, as James Fittler.
John Smart—Miniaturist: 1741/2–1811, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 9, 1965–January 2, 1966, no cat., as James Fittler (pencil drawing).
The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 138, as James Fittler.
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 James Fittler.
Drawing formed a cornerstone of John Smart’s artistic practice. He created detailed sketches of his sitters, like Alexander James Dallas (nos. 4 & 5), before finishing the portraits on ivory. Occasionally, these initial drawings were completed as stand-alone works of art, offering more affordable and larger alternatives to ivory miniatures, like the drawing he gave to his friend, the engraver James Fittler (no. 1).
Smart kept many of these preparatory drawings, using them as a visual record of his work and facilitating the creation of additional versions if needed. He compiled them into large albums, often annotated on the back with color notes and the sitter’s name.
Initially intended for personal use, Smart’s preparatory drawings were later removed from the albums by his descendants and sold in the 1930s. Since then, they have become highly prized by collectors, including the Starr family.
Gifted to the sitter, James Fittler (1756–1835), London, October 20, 1805;
Baron Hans Reitzes von Marienwert (1877–1935), Vienna, by May 1924–1935 [1];
Inherited by his wife, Baroness Maria Reitzes von Marienwert (1891–1975), Vienna and New York, 1935–1948;
Purchased from her sale, Fine French Furniture, Renaissance Bronzes, Important Tapestries, Old Meissen and Other Porcelain, French Objets d’Art, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, May 1, 1948, lot 273, as James Fittler, Marine Engraver to George III [2];
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.
Notes
[1] Baron Hans Reitzes von Marienwert exhibited the miniature in May 1924 at Internationale Miniaturen-Austellung in der Albertina Wien, Vienna, Albertina, May–June 1924, no. 840, p. 47.
[2] According to Art Prices Current 26 (1947–49), A65, lot 273 sold for £290.
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, The Thirty-Eighth, exh. cat. (London: B. McMillan, 1806), 27, as Mr. Fittler.
Leo Schidlof, Internationale Miniaturen-Ausstellung in der Albertina Wien, exh. cat. (Vienna: Gesellschaft der Bilder- und Miniaturenfreunde, 1924), 47, as James Fittler.
Fine French Furniture, Renaissance Bronzes, Important Tapestries, Old Meissen and Other Porcelain, French Objets d’Art (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, May 1, 1948), 62.
Daphne Foskett, “Miniatures by John Smart,” Antiques 90, no. 3 (September 1966): 356, (repro.), as James Fittler.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 138, p. 48, (repro.), as James Fittler.
Maggie Keenan, “John Smart, Portrait of James Fittler, October 20, 1805,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1628.
