Portrait of Alexander James Dallas
Framed: 2 7/16 × 2 inches (6.19 × 5.08 cm)
- 128
Drawing formed a cornerstone of John Smart’s artistic practice. He created detailed sketches of his sitters, like Alexander James Dallas (nos. 4 & 5), before finishing the portraits on ivory. Occasionally, these initial drawings were completed as stand-alone works of art, offering more affordable and larger alternatives to ivory miniatures, like the drawing he gave to his friend, the engraver James Fittler (no. 1).
Smart kept many of these preparatory drawings, using them as a visual record of his work and facilitating the creation of additional versions if needed. He compiled them into large albums, often annotated on the back with color notes and the sitter’s name.
Initially intended for personal use, Smart’s preparatory drawings were later removed from the albums by his descendants and sold in the 1930s. Since then, they have become highly prized by collectors, including the Starr family.
John Smart (1741–1811), by around 1780–1811;
By descent to his son, John James Smart (1805–1870), 1811–1870;
By descent to his daughter, Mary Ann Bose (née Smart, 1856–1934), 1870–1934;
By descent to her daughter, Lilian Mary Dyer (née Bose, 1876–1955), 1934–1937;
Purchased from her sale, Sketches and Studies for Miniature Portraits by John Smart, Christie’s, London, November 26, 1937, lot 10, as Mr. Dallas, of Jamaica, by R. Workman, 1937;
Peter Kaufmann, by 1975;
Sold from his sale, A Collection of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, October 13, 1975, lot 86, as Mr. Dallas of Jamaica;
With Bruton Knowles and Co., Gloucestershire, lot 77, April 25, 1996;
Sold, Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes, Christie’s, London, November 17, 2009, lot 335, as Mr. Dallas;
Private Collection, USA, possibly by 2009;
With Philip Mould, London, by 2022–2023;
Purchased from Philip Mould by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2023.
Sketches and Studies for Miniature Portraits by John Smart (London: Christie’s, November 26, 1937), lot 10, as Mr. Dallas, of Jamaica.
Advertisement, Burlington Magazine 117, no. 871 (October 1975): viii, xix, (repro.), as A watercolor sketch of Mr. Dallas of Jamaica.
A Collection of Fine Portrait Miniatures (London: Sotheby’s, October 13, 1975), lot 86, as Mr. Dallas of Jamaica.
Centuries of Style: Silver, European Ceramics, Portrait Miniatures and Gold Boxes (London: Christie’s, November 17, 2009), lot 335, as Mr. Dallas.
Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Portrait of Alexander James Dallas, ca. 1780,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1563.
