John Smart, Portrait of a Man, 1801

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Portrait of a Man, 1801,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1618.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “John Smart, Portrait of a Man, 1801,” catalogue entry. 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, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 4, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2025. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1618.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

The gray-eyed, ruddy-faced, middle-aged man in this portrait wears his white hair en queue, secured with a black bow. Over his white stock collar and bow, he wears a double-breasted charcoal coat with pewter buttons and a black velvet collar, which shows faint traces of hair powder. The 1795 Duty on Hair Powder Act¹ made wearing powder both unfashionable and costly, requiring individuals to pay a guinea to wear it, but certain groups were exempt: the royal family and their servants, clergymen with incomes less than one thousand pounds a year, and members of the armed forces, including volunteers.² While the identity of this sitter remains unknown, it is likely he belonged to one of these exempt groups.

On his return from India in 1795, Smart was in high demand as a portrait artist, though he found England a different place than the one he left in 1785. The period between 1793 and 1802, known as “The Years of Endurance,” was marked by looming threat of Napoleonic invasion, prompting the formation of volunteer units for England’s defense.³ Smart himself joined the St. Pancras Association Volunteers in 1798.⁴ It is possible that this sitter, given the presence of hair powder, may have had military ties or been associated with one of these volunteer groups.

The sitter’s fleshy double chin and unidealized features, along with his direct gaze, contribute to a portrait of remarkable honesty. This work exemplifies Smart’s ability to capture the individuality and lived reality of his subjects, hinting at a man likely aligned with the patriotic efforts of the time. Smart masterfully conveys both dignity and the marks of a life shaped by the pressures of a turbulent period.

Notes

1. William Pitt introduced the Duty on Hair Powder Act in Great Britain on May 5, 1795, as an Act of Parliament. Stephen Dowell, A History of Taxation and Taxes in England from the Earliest Times to the Year 1885 (London: Longmans, Green, 1888), 3:255–59.

2. Specifically, this included individuals who were privates in the army, artillery soldiers, mariners, engineers, non-commissioned officers, subalterns, officers in the navy below commander, yeomanry, militia, fencibles, and volunteers. See Dowell, History of Taxation, 3:255–59.

3. See Arthur Bryant, The Years of Endurance, 1793–1802 (London: Reprint Society, 1944).

4. Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), 22. For more on this aspect of Smart’s career, see Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Crafting a Legacy in Miniature: John Smart in London, 1795–1811."

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.

John Smart—Miniaturist: 1741/2–1811, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 9, 1965–January 2, 1966, no cat., as Gentleman.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 134, 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 Man.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 134, p. 47, (repro.), as Unknown Man.