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After John Smart, Portrait of a Man, late 19th/early 20th century

doi: 10.37764/8322.5.4214
Artist After John Smart (English, 1741–1811)
Title Portrait of a Man
Object Date late 19th/early 20th century
Medium Watercolor and gouache on ivory
Setting Gilt copper alloy case
Dimensions Sight: 1 1/2 x 1 3/16 in. (3.8 x 3 cm)
Framed: 1 15/16 x 1 5/8 in. (4.9 x 4.1 cm)
Inscription Inscribed on recto, lower left: “1771”
Credit Line Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr and the Starr Foundation, Inc., F58-60/139

Curatorial Notes

This miniature was identified in 2017 by specialists Carol Aiken and Elle Shushan as a later copy after an original miniature by John Smart. While it is painted in the style of John Smart, as in the use of gouache in the coat, the miniature does not follow the traditional technique of miniaturists of that period. Per Bernd Pappe, the miniature is copied after Smart’s 1771 portrait of an unknown man, now in the Museum Wasserburg Kemnade, Hattingen (Rudowski collection) (see Nelson-Atkins curatorial files, 2017; Bernd Pappe, “Attribution Report,” August 6, 2023, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files).

Provenance

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

References

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 265, as artist unknown, after John Smart, Portrait of a Man.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 150, p. 52, (repro.), as after John Smart, Unknown Man.

No known exhibitions at this time. If you have additional information on this object, please tell us more.

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