Edward Greene Malbone, Portrait of Mary Ann Smith, February–April 1802

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Edward Greene Malbone, Portrait of Mary Ann Smith, February–April 1802,” 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. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.3214.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “Edward Greene Malbone, Portrait of Mary Ann Smith, February–April 1802,” 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. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.3214.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

Despite succumbing to the debilitating effects of tuberculosis in 1807, Edward Greene Malbone maximized his brief twelve-year career. His travels to Boston, where he worked collaboratively with Washington Allston (1779–1843), and to Charleston, South Carolina, where he influenced miniaturist Charles Fraser (1782–1860), showcase his artistic impact. After further honing his craft under the guidance of artists Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) and Thomas Sully (1783–1872) during his time in England, Malbone returned to Charleston in December of 1801, with a determination to establish himself in that city once again. He took out an advertisement in the South Carolina Gazette and Timothy’s Daily Advertiser to announce his intentions:

Edward G. Malbone has lately arrived here, and intends to practice the above art during his stay in this place, specimens of his work may be seen at his room at Mrs. Miot’s boarding house at the corner of Meeting and Queen Streets.¹

Malbone’s popularity surged, marking the beginning of his most prolific period. He completed three miniatures per week for the next five months, including the present portrait.² From February to April 1802 he painted portraits of Mary Ann Smith (1774–1825), who was then twenty-eight years old, and her older sister, Elizabeth Smith.³ The girls were the daughters of Henry Smith and his second wife, Elizabeth Ball of Charleston; granddaughters of the 2nd Landgrave Thomas Smith; and great-granddaughters of the 1st Landgrave Thomas Smith, Governor of South Carolina.⁴ Little else is known about Mary Ann Smith, who went by Polly as a young girl. There is an example of a sampler she created in 1781, then aged seven, worked in reversible stiches, in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg.⁵ Mary Ann Smith died on July 5, 1825, at the age of fifty-one. She is buried at Yeamans Hall Plantation Cemetery, Goose Creek, South Carolina.

The Nelson-Atkins miniature presents Smith in three-quarters profile, facing right. She wears a low-cut white cotton dress with a squared, ruffled collar. Her natural brown hair frames her face, as do her wide-set, kohl-enhanced brows, which sit atop a pair of penetrating dark blue eyes. Malbone’s delicate hatch marks meticulously trace the contours of her bone structure, with curved strokes rounding over her cheek, lips, and the bridge of her nose. Malbone appears to have laid in a dark underlayer or shadow underneath the flesh tones, just as a painter in oils would, to give the form a sense of solidity.

Malbone scholar Ruel Tolman notes that both portraits are mentioned in Malbone’s account book that he maintained from December 1801 until December 1806. The present portrait appears in the account book as “xx The Miss Smiths 2,” referencing both sisters’ portraits, and in a second entry reading “Recd of the Miss Smiths ($) 148.”⁶ Tolman continues: “The latter entry would represent payment for two miniatures with settings at his usual price of $74 apiece.” Tolman surmises that the payment was for the miniatures listed in his account book rather than for any additional miniatures whose locations remain untraced. Tolman’s insight into Malbone’s account books provides a glimpse into the commissioning process, suggesting that the sisters may have sought these portraits as keepsakes of one another. Neither sister married nor had children. Alternatively, the miniatures could have been mementos for their older sister, Catherine Ball Poyas (née Smith, 1768–1836), within whose family line the Nelson-Atkins miniature passed by descent (see accompanying provenance). In the absence of their deceased parents, these miniatures stand as testaments to familial bonds that withstood the test of time.

Notes

1. Cited in Ruel Pardee Tolman, The Life and Works of Edward Greene Malbone (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1958), 22.

2. Tolman, Life and Works of Edward Greene Malbone, 22.

3. As dated by Tolman, Life and Works of Edward Greene Malbone, 247–48, nos. 406 and 407.

4. Tolman, Life and Works of Edward Greene Malbone, 247.

5. See Polly Ann Smith (American, 1774–1825), Sampler, December 21, 1781, silk embroidery on linen, 16 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. (42.6 x 26 cm), Colonial Williamsburg, https://emuseum.history.org/objects/103551/sampler-by-polly-ann-smith.

6. It is uncertain what Malbone meant by the “xx” in this reference, other than that it could have been a double notation that there were two portraits. Tolman includes a facsimile of Malbone’s account books in his monograph. They are arranged alphabetically by surname with the place and year of entry. In each case, the place of entry in the Account Book is indicated by two numbers separated by a dash, the first referring to the account book page as numbered on the facsimile and the second referring to the entry line on that page as counted from the top down. The reference “xx The Miss Smiths 2” is noted as 33-3, or the thirty-third page, three lines down from the top. Similarly, the reference “Recd of the Miss Smiths ($) 148” is referenced as 6-9, or on the sixth page, nine lines down from the top. See Tolman, Life and Works of Edward Greene Malbone, 78, 92, 247.

Probably commissioned as a pair by the sitter, Mary Ann Smith (1774–1825) and her sister, Elizabeth Smith (1770–1846), Charleston, SC, by February–April 1802 [1];

Probably to their niece-in-law, Elizabeth Ann Poyas (née Scott, 1792–1877), Charleston, SC, by 1846–1877 [2];

Probably by descent to her daughter, Harriet Smith Foster (née Poyas, 1816–1899), Dorchester County, SC, 1877–1899;

Probably by descent to her daughter, Katherine Perry (née Foster, 1848–1936), Charleston, SC, 1899–1936 [3];

By descent to her daughter and son-in-law, Harriet Foster Haskell (née Perry, 1874–1937) and James Heyward Haskell (1871–1937), Charleston, SC, 1936–1937;

By descent to their daughters, Mary Lemons (née Haskell, 1899–1997) and Katherine Foster McDermott (née Haskell, 1902–1986), joint owners, 1937–at least 1938 [4];

Norvin Hewitt Green (1893–1955), New York, by 1955;

Sold at his posthumous sale, Early American Furniture, Important Miniatures and Prints, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, October 14–15, 1955, lot 237, as Mary Ann (Polly) Smith [5];

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.

Notes

[1] Neither Mary Anne nor Elizabeth married nor had children. It is possible that their other sister Catherine Ball Poyas (née Smith, 1768–1836), Charleston, SC, could have received the Nelson-Atkins miniature since it descended through her family line. It appears in the collection of her great granddaughter Katherine Perry in 1929.

[2] Elizabeth Ann Scott was married to Catherine Poyas’s son, Henry Smith Poyas (1787–1824), but he died at the age of 37.

[3] Katherine Foster married Jennings Waring Perry (1846–1886) of Charleston, SC. Katherine and her daughter, Harriet, lent the miniature to Exhibition of Miniatures and Other Works by Edward Greene Malbone, 1777–1807, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 23–April 21, 1929.

[4] Mary Lemons (née Haskell) was born in South Carolina but lived with her husband James Hatfield Lemons (1893–1970) in Westchester, New York, in 1940. According to 1940 United States Federal Census, Mamaroneck, Westchester, New York, district 60-102, roll: m-t0627-02805, p. 9B, digitized on Ancestrylibrary.com. Katherine McDermott married Thomas Patrick McDermott (1896–1949) in New York in 1924. Their third daughter, Elizabeth Haskell, died in 1926. “Joint owners in 1938” is according to Ruel Pardee Tolman, The Life and Works of Edward Greene Malbone (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1958), 248.

[5] Decribed in the catalogue as “Mary Ann (Polly) Smith. Edward Greene Malbone, American: 1777–1807. Handsome young woman facing half-right, with chestnut brown hair, wearing a white muslin dress edged on her bosom with a ruffle. Locket frame. In case. (Green Estate). Oval: Height 3 1/8 inches. From J. H. Haskel, Charleston, S. C.”

Edward Greene Malbone, Elizabeth Smith (1770–1846), February–April 1802, watercolor on ivory, 2 1/8 x 2 1/4 in., previously in the collection of Miss Julia Ball, current location unknown.

Exhibition of Miniatures and Other Works by Edward Greene Malbone, 1777–1807, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 23–April 21, 1929, no. 71, as Mary Ann (Polly) Smith, 1774–1825.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 228, as Mary Ann Smith.

Catalogue of an Exhibition of Miniatures and Other Works by Edward Greene Malbone, 1777–1807, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1929), no. 71, as Mary Ann (Polly) Smith, 1774–1825.

Jean Lambert Brockway, “Malbone, American Miniature Painter,” American Magazine of Art 20, no. 4 (April 1929): 188, (repro.), as Mary Ann (Polly) Smith.

Ruel Pardee Tolman, “Newly Discovered Miniatures by Edward Greene Malbone,” The Magazine Antiques 16 (November 1929): 378, as Mary Ann (Polly) Smith.

Early American Furniture, Important Miniatures and Prints (New York: Parke-Bernet Galleries, October 15, 1955), 51, (repro.), as Mary Ann (Polly) Smith.

Ruel Pardee Tolman, The Life and Works of Edward Greene Malbone (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1958), nos. 406–407, pp. 247–48, as The Miss Smiths.

Martha Jane and John W. Starr, “Collecting Portrait Miniatures,” Antiques 80, no. 5 (November 1961): 440, (repro.), as Mary Ann Smith.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 1971), no. 228, p. 75, (repro.), as Mary Ann Smith.