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This self-portrait depicts the artist in profile, facing left. The oval composition, completed in pencil on laid paper, has a bare background except for a shadow of diagonal hatching to the right of the artist’s back. A delicate pencil line indicates an oval border and a frame’s edge, below which is the artist’s inscription which translates to “John Smart, drew himself, Madras, 1793.” The portrait’s profile view displays him chest up with his back to the viewer, wearing a coat with a folded collar. Smart wears his hair natural, with a long braid extending down his back.
John Smart, Self-Portrait, 1793, pencil on laid paper, overall: 7 3/4 x 6 7/8 in. (19.8 x 17.4 cm), Purchase: acquired through the generosity of the Martha Jane Phillips Starr Field of Interest Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, 2024.10

John Smart, Self-Portrait, 1793

Artist John Smart (English, 1741–1811)
Title Self-Portrait
Object Date 1793
Medium Pencil on laid paper
Dimensions Sight: 6 3/4 x 6 1/8 in. (17.2 x 15.6 cm)
Framed: 15 7/8 x 14 3/4 in. (40.3 x 37.5 cm)
Inscription Inscribed, lower center: “John Smart delineavit Seipsum, Madras. 1793”
Credit Line Purchase: acquired through the generosity of the Martha Jane Phillips Starr Field of Interest Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, 2024.10

doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1599

Scholarly research and commentary to be published in 2025.

 

This self-portrait depicts the artist in profile, facing left. The oval composition, completed in pencil on laid paper, has a bare background except for a shadow of diagonal hatching to the right of the artist’s back. A delicate pencil line indicates an oval border and a frame’s edge, below which is the artist’s inscription which translates to “John Smart, drew himself, Madras, 1793.” The portrait’s profile view displays him chest up with his back to the viewer, wearing a coat with a folded collar. Smart wears his hair natural, with a long braid extending down his back.
John Smart, Self-Portrait, 1793, pencil on laid paper, overall: 7 3/4 x 6 7/8 in. (19.8 x 17.4 cm), Purchase: acquired through the generosity of the Martha Jane Phillips Starr Field of Interest Fund at the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, 2024.10