Portrait of a Woman
Framed: 3 11/16 × 2 13/16 inches (9.37 × 7.14 cm)
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John Smart—Miniaturist: 1741/2–1811, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 9, 1965–January 2, 1966, no cat., as Lady.
The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 137, as Unknown Lady.
Engaging the Viewer, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 12, 2010–January 16, 2011, no cat.
Rivals: John Smart and Richard Cosway, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 11, 2017–March 11, 2018, no cat.
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 Woman.
Smart created intricately detailed and carefully observed portraits of wealthy merchants. His miniatures’ expressive features and richly textured clothing convey sitters’ personalities and circumstances. Smart often worked from sketches of his subjects, allowing him to produce later versions of his miniatures.
For much of his career, Smart was based in London, but in 1785, he moved to India. He painted there for ten years for both British employees of the East India Company and Indian royals. Works from this period are often inscribed with an “I”.
After his return to London, Smart used his meticulous style to paint larger miniatures, which were in fashion.
Mary L. G. Carus-Wilson (née Mary Louisa Georgina Petrie, 1861–1935), Montreal and London, by 1916;
Purchased from her sale, The Collection of Works of Art Presented to the British Red Cross Society and the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England to be sold for the Benefit of their Funds, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, April 11, 1916, no. 600, as A miniature of Mrs. John Wilkinson (née Aldridge), of Brymbo Hall, Denbighshire, with auburn curling hair, wearing blue and white dress, by John Smart, 1804, in gold locket with hair at the back, by Mr. W. Williams, 1916 [1];
Sold, Jewels, Silver, Miniatures, Objects of Art and Vertu . . . and from Various Sources, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, July 12, 1939, no. 172, as Portrait of Mrs. John Wilkinson (née Aldridge), of Brymbo Hall, Denbighshire, 1939 [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] Thank you to Samantha Hogate for identifying the Nelson-Atkins portrait in the 1916 and 1939 sales. See correspondence with Meghan Gray, August 10, 2026, NAMA curatorial files.
[2] The rest of the description of the miniature says, “three-quarter face to the left, in blue and white Empire dress with pearls in her auburn hair—oval—signed with initials and dated 1804—in gold frame, the reverse set with plaited hair and the monogram I. H. I. From the Red Cross Sale, 1916, lot 600.” The miniature was sold by “different properties.”
The Collection of Works of Art Presented to the British Red Cross Society and the Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England to be sold for the Benefit of their Funds, (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, April 11, 1916), 66, as A miniature of Mrs. John Wilkinson (née Aldridge), of Brymbo Hall, Denbighshire, with auburn curling hair, wearing blue and white dress, by John Smart, 1804, in gold locket with hair at the back.
“The Red Cross Sale: £1,500 for a Group of Miniatures,” Times (London) (April 12, 1916): 11, as Mrs. John Wilkinson, of Brymbo Hall, Denbighshire.
Catalogue of Jewels, Silver, Miniatures, Objects of Art and Vertu . . . and from Various Sources, (London: Christie, Manson, and Woods, July 12, 1939), 29, as Portrait of Mrs. John Wilkinson (née Aldridge), of Brymbo Hall, Denbighshire.
Daphne Foskett, “Miniatures by John Smart: The Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum,” Antiques 90, no. 3 (September 1966): 356, (repro.).
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 137, pp. 31, 48, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.
Blythe Sobol, “An Outsized Passion for Miniatures: The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” in Portrait Miniatures: Artists, Functions, Techniques, and Collections (Petersberg, Germany: Michael Imhof Verlag, 2023), 243, (repro.).
Blythe Sobol, “John Smart, Portrait of a Woman, 1804,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1626.
