Portrait of a Man, Possibly Sir Soulden Lawrence

About this work

This portrait is an excellent example of John Smart’s early work. The unknown sitter has blue eyes and wears a light blue coat embroidered in gold, a white waistcoat, and a high white collar with a lace frill down the front. He also dons a powdered wig—still fashionable in 1770. While the sitter’s cheeks are flushed with a delicate pink, his complexion does not have the ruddy quality so often seen in Smart’s later work. The intricate gold embroidery on the sitter’s jacket exemplifies the ornamentation lavished upon menswear during the early and mid-eighteenth century—a male fashion trend replaced two decades later by one that stressed greater sobriety. The date on the miniature is difficult to decipher but probably reads 1770. Not only is the date in keeping with its size, but the number 0 is elevated, as is the case in another Smart miniature in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection, Portrait of Constantine Phipps, also dated 1770. Furthermore, as early as 1948, Smart expert Arthur Jaffé was casting doubt that the portrait could have been painted at any date later than 1773 because of the nature of the costume.

The miniature is housed in a period gold frame with a pin on the…