Portrait of a Member of the Frankland Family, Probably Henry Cromwell Frankland
Framed: 1 3/8 × 1 1/8 inches (3.49 × 2.86 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 Young Gentleman.
The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 85, as Unknown Man.
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 Member of the Frankland Family, Probably Henry Cromwell Frankland.
This is the earliest work by John Smart in the collection. It dates to the first year of his career, marked by “mask-faced” sitters depicted in a pale, flat style. The sitter was preparing to enlist in the Navy and probably intended the portrait as a keepsake for his father.
Probably commissioned by Sir Charles Henry Frankland (1716–1768), 1760;
Probably by descent to an unknown man, by April 15, 1958 [1];
Purchased from his sale, Fine 18th Century Miniatures, Christie’s, London, April 15, 1958, lot 73, Portrait of a Young Man, Probably a Member of the Frankland Family, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of John W. (1905–2000) and Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1958–1965 [2];
Their gift to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1965.
Notes
[1] In the Christie’s April 15, 1958 sale, “A Gentleman” sold lots 70–73. All lots depict Henry Cromwell Frankland and members of his extended family. Due to this familial relationship, the seller may have been a descendant of the Frankland family.
[2] With thanks to Bailey McCulloch for tracking down this sale and its corresponding newspaper coverage. The miniature is described in the sales catalogue as “Portrait of a young man, probably a member of the Frankland family, by John Smart and signed with initials and dated 1760, nearly full face, wearing pink coat with gold frogging and lace collar and with powdered and dressed hair—oval—1 3/8 in. high—plain gold bracelet frame. See Illustration facing page 17.” Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, NAMA curatorial files.
Fine 18th Century Miniatures (London: Christie’s, April 15, 1958), 18, as Portrait of a Young Man, Probably a Member of the Frankland Family.
Sale Room Correspondent, “Miniature Fetches 200gns,” The Times (London), April 16, 1958, 15.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 91, p. 37, (repro.), as Unknown Man.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 149, (repro.), as Portrait of a Man.
Blythe Sobol, “John Smart, Portrait of a Member of the Frankland Family, Probably Henry Cromwell Frankland, 1760,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1506.
