Portrait of a Woman

Artist John Smart (English, 1741 - 1811)

Date1777

MediumWatercolor on ivory; Gilt copper alloy bracelet clasp, converted from a brooch, and set in a gilt locket

DimensionsSight: 1 7/16 × 1 1/4 inches (3.65 × 3.18 cm)
Framed: 1 13/16 × 1 9/16 inches (4.6 × 3.97 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Starr Foundation, Inc.

Object numberF65-41/18

InscribedInscribed on recto, lower left: "J.S. / 1777".

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionPortrait miniature of a woman with natural hair wearing a blue gown before a gray background.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 103, as Unknown 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 Woman.

Provenance

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.

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. 103, p. 39, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Portrait of a Woman, 1777,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1550.

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