John Smart, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1780

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1780,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1558.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “John Smart, Portrait of a Woman, ca. 1780,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1558.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

Portrait miniatures served as intimate tokens of love, loss, loyalty, and affection, often worn close to the heart or carried as cherished personal keepsakes. This particular miniature by John Smart, one of two rings in the Starr Collection, was realized around 1780. It features a young woman in three-quarters view, her large brown eyes gazing softly into the distance. Her upswept, frizzled hair is adorned with a braid and a pearl-encrusted ornament attached to a veil, which cascades around her shoulders. Only a glimpse of her attire is visible: a white muslin dress with an overjacket edged in fur. A similar although slightly taller hairstyle, veil, and fur-trimmed jacket can be seen in Smart’s 1777 portrait of Mrs. Charlotte Lennox at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Fig. 1).

Here, the sitter’s powdered hair has an unusual pinkish tint. Although pink hair powder did exist at the time, its presence in portraiture is limited to miniatures and predominantly found in portraits produced by John Smart and artists in his immediate circle, whose clientele was largely made up of the merchant and military classes.¹ Although technical analysis conducted as part of the research for this catalogue confirmed that Smart used red iron rather than a fading lake pigment—suggesting the pink was a deliberate choice—Mellon scientist John Twilley posits that Smart may also have employed organic dyes.² These water-soluble dyes could have been mixed with the iron to create a more naturalistic brownish hue of hair that has since faded.³ This alteration could account for the pink tones in the hair, suggesting that the effect is not a deliberate fashion statement but rather the result of color change over time. Alternatively, the sitter’s reddish-tinted eyebrows suggest she may have had naturally red hair, which if powdered white might have cast a pinkish hue.

While the identity of this sitter remains unknown, portrait miniatures set into rings were often created for memorial or mourning purposes. These objects frequently included symbols of mourning, such as hair reserves or inscriptions on the reverse. However, this ring lacks any clear indicators of mourning, which suggests it may have been intended as a personal memento rather than a commemorative piece.⁴

Notes

1. For more on this phenomenon in Smart’s work, see Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Pretty in Pink: John Smart’s Penchant (or Not) for Pink Hair.”

2. The study of John Smart’s palette has been part of a Mellon Science Research project undertaken by John Twilley with the support of NAMA objects conservator Stephanie Spence. The research question grew out of the prevalence of pink hair among Smart’s sitters alongside the lack of pink hair among Smart’s contemporaries, other than those associated with his circle, in oil or miniature. Four miniatures were examined as part of this discrete study, the results of which appear in the technical entries of these objects: John Smart, Portrait of a Man, 1770, F65-41/11; Portrait of a Man, 1778, F65-41/19; Portrait of Charlotte Porcher, 1787, F65-41/28; Portrait of Mrs. Ronalds, 1798, F65-41/39.

3. See the technical entries by Twilley and Spence, referenced in n. 2.

4. Marcia Pointon has explored the significant social meaning of giving jewelry within the economy of exchange in eighteenth-century England in “‘Surrounded with Brilliants’: Miniature Portraits in Eighteenth-Century England,” Art Bulletin 83, no. 1 (March 2001): 48–71.

John H. Burls, New Malden, Surrey, by March 31, 1949 [1];

Purchased from his sale, Fine Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, March 31, 1949, lot 60, as A Girl, by Leggatt Brothers, London, probably on behalf of Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, 1949–1958 [2];

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] The sale was “The Property of J. H. Burls, Esq., New Malden, Surrey.” There was a John H. Burls of 11 Ancaster Crescent, New Malden, Surrey, listed in Leathergoods 103–04 (1968): 88.

[2] According to the lot description, “A Gold Ring, the oval bezel with a small Miniature of a Girl, by John Smart, signed, head and gaze three-quarters dexter, a gauze veil over her golden hair, 1 in. [See Illustration, Plate V].”

An annotated sales catalogue is located at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Miller Nichols Library and is likely annotated by Mr. or Mrs. Starr with a circled lot number and “Leggatt £36.” According to the attached price list, Leggatt bought lot 60 for £36. Archival research has shown that Leggatt Brothers served as purchasing agents for the Starrs. See correspondence between Betty Hogg and Martha Jane Starr, May 15 and June 3, 1950, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. Hogg assisted Mrs. Starr in purchasing a group of miniatures at this sale, including two by Smart (Portrait of Charles Stewart, 7th Earl of Traquair, ca. 1790 and this one. See group of letters between Martha Jane Starr and Betty Hogg, undated, box 18, folder 25, Martha Jane Starr Collection, LaBudde Special Collections, University of Missouri-Kansas City.

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 Woman.

Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures (London: Sotheby’s, March 31, 1949), 8 (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 265, as Portrait of a Lady.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 111, p. 41, (repro.), as Unknown Woman.