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recto overall with frame
Self-Portrait
recto overall with frame
recto overall with frame

Self-Portrait

Artist John Smart (English, 1741 - 1811)
Date1793
MediumPencil on laid paper
DimensionsImage (oval): 7 13/16 × 6 7/8 inches (19.84 × 17.46 cm)
Sight: 6 3/4 × 6 1/8 inches (17.15 × 15.56 cm)
Mat: 11 7/8 × 13 inches (30.16 × 33.02 cm)
Framed: 15 7/8 × 14 3/4 × 1 3/4 inches (40.32 × 37.47 × 4.45 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: acquired through the generosity of The Martha Jane Phillips Starr Field of Interest Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, exchange of the gifts of Laura Nelson Kirkwood Residuary Trust, and the Beckett Art Purchases Fund in memory of Samuel and Ethel Beckett
Object number2024.10
SignedInscribed, lower center: “John Smart delineavit Seipsum, Madras. 1793"
InscribedInscribed, lower center: “John Smart delineavit Seipsum, Madras. 1793”
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 128
Collections
DescriptionThis self-portrait depicts the artist in profile, facing left. The oval composition, completed in pencil on laid paper, has a bare background except for a shadow of diagonal hatching to the right of the artist’s back. A delicate pencil line indicates an oval border and a frame’s edge, below which is the artist’s inscription which translates to “John Smart, drew himself, Madras, 1793.” The portrait’s profile view displays him from the chest up with his back to the viewer, wearing a coat with a folded collar. Smart wears his hair natural, with a long braid extending down his back.Exhibition History
John Smart: Virtuoso in Miniature, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 21, 2024–January 4, 2026, no cat., as Self-Portrait.
Gallery Label

In this portrait, Smart presents himself as a confident artist at the pinnacle of his career. The drawing is outstanding for its unique profile view and its size. It is the largest of Smart’s nine known self-portraits and the only one with a full Latin inscription, which reads, “John Smart drew himself, Madras. 1793.” This recent museum acquisition, made in partnership with the Starr family, marks what would have been John W. and Martha Jane Starr’s 90th wedding anniversary, fulfilling their quest for a Smart self-portrait, which they began in 1954.

Provenance

John Smart (1741–1811), Madras, India, 1793;

To his son-in-law, John Dighton (1761–1840), Madras, India, and Gloucestershire, England, by 1795–1840 [1];

Possibly inherited by his sister, Lucy Machen (née Dighton, 1757–1855), Gloucestershire, 1840–1855 [2];

Possibly by descent to her son, Edward Machen (1783–1862), Gloucestershire, 1855–1862;

Possibly by descent to his son, Rev. Edward Machen (1817–1893), Gloucestershire, 1862–1893;

By descent to his son, Charles Edward Machen (1849–1917), Gloucestershire, 1893–1917 [3];

By descent to his son, Henry Arthur Ilbert Machen (1880–1958), Gloucestershire, 1917–1958 [4];

By descent to his children, James Edward Hugo Henry Machen (1910–1992) and Joan Hildegarde Sabine Machen (1912–2001), 1958–October 19, 1981;

Purchased from their sale, Silhouettes and Important Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby, Parke, Bernet, London, October 19, 1981, lot 184, as A Self-Portrait, by Dr. Erika Polh-Ströher (1919–2016), Switzerland, 1981–2016 [5];

Purchased from Dr. Polh-Ströher’s posthumous sale, Old Master Day Sale, Sotheby’s, London, July 29, 2020, lot 247, as Self-Portrait, by a private collector, London, 2020–2023;

With Lowell Libson and Jonny Yarker Ltd, London, 2023–2024;

Purchased from Lowell Libson and Jonny Yarker by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2024.

Notes

[1] It is possible that John Smart first gifted his daughter, Sophia Dighton (née Smart, 1768–1793), the drawing, but she died in Madras in the summer of 1793. Smart left for London in 1795, and John Dighton remained in Madras until around 1821.

[2] John Dighton’s sister, Lucy Machen (née Dighton), is his only sibling who outlived him.

[3] According to the October 19, 1981, sale, Charles Edward Machen had “4 children, including the father of the present owner of the Smart-Dighton portraits.”

[4] Henry Arthur Ilbert Machen had three other siblings: Charles Edward Machen died in his 20s or 30s with no known spouse or kids; Lucy Machen; and Lionel Machen, who immigrated to Australia in 1912. The description, “4 children, including the father” implies a son, not a daughter, so Lucy likely did not inherit the portrait. This suggests that Henry was the inheritor. This is confirmed by Arthur Jaffé, “John Smart, Miniature Painter—1741(?)–1811: His Life and Iconography,” Art Quarterly 17, no. 3 (Autumn 1954): 252, which describes the 1793 Self-Portrait as in the “Collection of H. A. Matchen, Esq., Gloucestershire.”

[5] Lots 184–89 were listed as, “The property of a descendant of the Dighton family.” Lot 184 is described as, “A self-portrait, head and shoulders in profile to dexter, with hair en queue, pencil on paper, rectangular gilt gesso frame, oval 6 3/8 in.; 16.2 cm. This portrait would seem to have been executed at about the same period as the self-portrait illustrated by Foskett (D.), John Smart, 1964, pl. III, fig. 7, which is dated 1797, but it is likely that as it belongs to the group of portraits below, which were all painted in Madras between 1790 and 1792. It may be a few years earlier in date than this, and prior to his departure from India in 1795.” According to the attached price list, lot 184 sold for 3,300 pounds. The illustration shows a framed border around the self-portrait, which conceals the artist’s inscription, and therefore explains the work’s then-unknown date.


 
Published References

Arthur Jaffé, “John Smart, Miniature Painter—1741(?)–1811: His Life and Iconography,” Art Quarterly 17, no. 3 (Autumn 1954): 245, (repro.), as Self-Portrait.

Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), 73.

Silhouettes and Important Portrait Miniatures (London: Sotheby, Parke, Bernet, October 19, 1981), 59, (repro.), as A Self-Portrait.

John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760–1790 (London: National Portrait Gallery, 2004), 438.

Old Master Day Sale (London: Sotheby’s, July 29, 2020), lot 247, as Self-Portrait.

Julian Zugazagoitia and Laura Spencer. Director's Highlights: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Celebrating 90 Years, ed. Kaitlyn Bunch (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), 225, (repro.).

“John Smart Portrait Miniatures Showcased at Nelson-Atkins,” ArtDaily (December 21, 2024): https://artdaily.cc/news/176685/John-Smart-portrait-miniatures-showcased-at-Nelson-Atkins, as Self-Portrait.

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Self-Portrait, 1793,” catalogue entry and Rachel Freeman technical note, 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/10.37764/8322.5.1599.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.


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