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Self-Portrait
John I Smart (British, 1741–1811)
1802
- Medium
- watercolor on ivory in a gold frame
- Classification
- Portrait Miniature
- Dimensions
- Framed: 7 x 5.7 cm (2 3/4 x 2 1/4 in.); Unframed: 6.9 x 5.4 cm (2 11/16 x 2 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- England, early 19th Century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- The Edward B. Greene Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This self-portrait depicts the artist’s almost full face with blue-gray eyes; gray, curly hair and sideburns; and a ruddy complexion. In spite of the fact that it was no longer in fashion, the powder on his collar indicates that even in 1802 John Smart continued to powder his hair. He wears a dark blue coat with brass buttons; white stock collar, bow, and frill; and deep yellow waistcoat. Arthur Jaffé has argued that the yellow waistcoat also seen in Smart’s portrait in the National Gallery, London, indicates his Whiggish political proclivities. The background of the miniature is yellowish gray, and it is signed at the lower left: “JS / 1802.” The silver-gilt frame is probably original, but the gold monogram JS, placed over an opalescent background, may have been added later.
The portrait was formerly in the collection of William Henry Bose, who was Smart’s great-grandson. The Bose collection of Smart sketches and preparatory studies was sold February 15, 1937, at Christie’s, London, but the self-portrait was retained and lent to the Victoria and Albert Museum. In her biography of Smart, Daphne Foskett notes that in 1913 William Bose received a letter from the Reynolds Galleries…
