Portrait of Keith MacAlister, Colonel of 5th Madras Native Cavalry
Framed: 3 9/16 × 2 15/16 inches (9.05 × 7.46 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 Officer.
The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 143, as Unknown Officer.
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 Keith MacAlister, Colonel of the 5th Madras Native Cavalry.
Smart captures Keith MacAlister’s heterochromia in his unusual blue and brown eyes, a result of genetics or injury. MacAlister served in the Indian wars, rescuing his brother from a four-year imprisonment there, before returning to Scotland. His natural pallor is most visible in the blue vein at his temple, although his ruddy skin hints at his time in India.
Unknown owner, by April 8, 1946 [1];
Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Oriental and European Ivories and Works of Art and Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, April 8, 1946, lot 147, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by Hans Backer, London, 1946 [2];
Probably purchased from Backer by Robert Henry Rockliff (ca. 1893–1963), Compton Grange, Eastbourne, England, by 1947 [3];
Purchased from his sale, Fine Portrait Miniatures, Enamels, and Snuff Boxes, Sotheby’s, London, November 11, 1947, lot 116, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by S. J. Phillips, London, 1947 [4];
Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1964–1965 [5];
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1965.
Notes
[1] In the Sotheby’s April 8, 1946, sale catalogue, “Other Properties” sold lots 137–49.
[2] It was described in the sales catalogue as “A very fine miniature of Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by John Smart, signed and dated 1810, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, gaze directed at spectator, in red tunic with silver facings and epaulettes, large oval, 3 3/8in; and another of his wife, Eliza, by J. F. Burrell, seated in a chair, wearing a black Empire dress with a lace yoke and red shawl, her lace cap bordered with seed pearls, holding a letter in her hand, inscribed Eliza, coiled hair at back, oval, 2 3/4in.”
According to Art Prices Current, vol. 24 (1945–1946), Backer bought lot 147 for £110. “Backer” is most likely Hans Backer, a popular portrait miniature dealer.
[3] Also referred to as Robert H. Rockliff, sometimes spelled Rockliffe.
[4] It was described in the sales catalogue as “A very fine miniature of Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by John Smart, signed and dated 1810, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, gaze directed at spectator, in red tunic, with silver facings and epaulettes, black collar and stock, large oval, 3 3/8 in.; and another of his wife Eliza, by J. F. Burrell, seated in a chair, wearing black Empire dress with lace yoke and red shawl, lace cap with seed pearls and a rosebud, holding a letter inscribed ‘Eliza’, coiled hair at back, oval, 2 3/4in. Sold in these Rooms, 8th April, 1946.”
According to the attached price list, S. J. Phillips bought lot 116 for £130. S. J. Phillips Ltd is a British antiques dealer, founded in 1869.
[5] See Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), pl. 28, fig. 101, (repro.), where the portrait is in the “Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Starr, Kansas City.”
Catalogue of Oriental and European Ivories and Works of Art and Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, April 8, 1946, lot 147, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.
Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Enamels, and Snuff Boxes, Sotheby’s, London, November 11, 1947, lot 116, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.
Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), pl. 28, fig. 101, (repro.), as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.
Antiques 90 (July–December 1966): 356, fig. 16, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 143, p. 50, (repro.), as Unknown Officer.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York City: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 175, (repro.), as Unknown Officer.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 84, (repro.), as Portrait of Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.
Maggie Keenan, “John Smart, Portrait of Keith MacAlister, Colonel of the 5th Madras Native Cavalry, 1810,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1638.
