Skip to main content

Portrait of a Woman

Artist John Smart (English, 1741 - 1811)
Date1807
MediumWatercolor on ivory; Bracelet clasp with gold bezel
DimensionsSight: 1 7/8 × 1 1/2 inches (4.76 × 3.81 cm)
Framed: 1 7/8 × 1 1/2 inches (4.76 × 3.81 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Starr Foundation, Inc.
Object numberF65-41/48
InscribedInscribed on recto, lower right: “JS. / 1807”
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 128
Collections
DescriptionPortrait miniature of a woman wearing a yellow gown before a cloudy sky background.Exhibition History

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. 140, 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

Unknown owner, by July 24, 1947 [1];

Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Oriental Ivories, Etc., Sotheby’s, London, July 24, 1947, lot 107, as A Lady, by H. Harris, 1947 [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] According to the 1947 sales catalogue, lots 88–108 belonged to “Other Properties.”

[2] According to Art Prices Current (1946–47), “H. Harris” bought lot 107 for £40. See also https://archive.org/details/orientalivorieso00soth/page/18/mode/2up.

Published References

Catalogue of Oriental Ivories, Etc. (London: Sotheby’s, July 24, 1947), 11, as A Well-Painted Miniature of a Lady.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 140, p. 49, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Portrait of a Woman, 1807,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1632.


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.


recto overall
Thomas Redmond
ca. 1770
F58-60/75
recto overall
Nathaniel Hone I
1760
F58-60/73
recto overall
John Smart
1798
F65-41/39
recto overall
John Smart
1781
F65-41/22
recto overall
John Smart
1777
F65-41/18
recto overall
John Smart
1767
F65-41/8
recto overall
John Smart
1801
F65-41/42
recto overall
John Donaldson
ca. 1786-1790
F58-60/169
recto overall
John Smart
1780
F65-41/21