John Smart, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Joseph or John Bennett, Recorder of Cork, 1766

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “John Smart, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Joseph or John Bennett, Recorder of Cork, 1766,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1518.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “John Smart, Portrait of a Man, Possibly Joseph or John Bennett, Recorder of Cork, 1766,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1518.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

This stylized early portrait by John Smart presents a male sitter dressed in a pink wool, silk, and linen coat with gold buttons and elaborate frogging. Beneath the coat, he wears a white linen shirt with a lace jabot. The sitter, his hair upswept and worn en queue, is depicted in three-quarters view, gazing out over his right, slightly sloped shoulder.

The portrait belongs to Smart’s early mask-faced phase, in which his sitters are less individualized than in his later, more confident works. As a result, there are few distinct features to aid in identifying the sitter. The miniature has been previously identified as depicting a “Mr. Brennen, Recorder of Cork,”¹ though no record exists of a Recorder in Cork by that surname. However, two individuals named Bennett held the title during the eighteenth century: Joseph Bennett (1718?–1767) served as Recorder from 1737 until his death,² and John Bennett (1720?–1792) held the position from around 1783 to 1787.³

The office of Recorder of Cork was a significant judicial role in pre-independence Ireland. As the city’s chief magistrate, the Recorder was responsible for maintaining public order and could also hold other legal or civic positions, such as Collector of Customs for the Port of Cork. The office was filled by election through the City Corporation, rather than by appointment from the English Crown, adding a layer of local importance to the role.⁴

There are no known portraits of Joseph Bennett, who would have been around forty-eight years old at the time of this portrait in 1766, if it depicts him. John Bennett, who would have been approximately forty-six at the time, later became a prominent political figure, serving in the Irish House of Commons and eventually as a justice of the Court of King’s Bench.⁵ A known portrait of John Bennett by an unidentified artist exists (Fig. 1), but the simplistic and somewhat crude likeness of this painting, combined with Smart’s mask-faced approach, makes it difficult to draw any clear conclusions about a resemblance between the two.

Joseph Bennett married Elizabeth Warren in 1737, and they had four daughters.⁶ No significant event in Bennett’s life around 1766 suggests the commissioning of a portrait. John Bennett married Jane Lovett, thirty-one years his junior, sometime before the birth of their first child in 1771.⁷ Although it is possible that the portrait was commissioned as an engagement gift, Lovett would have been only fifteen years old in 1766, casting some doubt on this theory.

While this portrait could depict either Joseph or John Bennett, the sitter’s identity remains uncertain. It may represent one of these men, a different Recorder of Cork, or another individual entirely. Further provenance research as well as comparison with contemporary records or portraits may eventually clarify the identity of this enigmatic sitter.

Notes

1. Foskett lists a portrait of a “Mr. Brennen, Recorder of Cork,” signed and dated 1766, in Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), 63.

2. “The Bennett Family of Bennett’s Court, County Cork” (transcription of memorial from St. Nicholas Church, City of Cork), The Historical Records of The County and City of Cork, Ireland, accessed October 24, 2024, https://corkrecords.com/Shed/Bennett.htm.

3. F. Elrington Ball, The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921 (London: John Murray, 1926), 175–77, 223.

4. For information about the county officers and courts of Cork, see “County Officers and Courts (Ireland) Act, 1877,” Electronic Irish Statute Book, accessed October 24, 2024, https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1877/act/56/enacted/en/print.html.

5. Ball, Judges in Ireland, 175–77, 187, 223.

6. Rev. Thomas Warren, A History and Genealogy of the Warren Family in Normandy, Great Britain, and Ireland, France, Holland, Tuscany, United States of America, etc. (A.D. 912–1902) (1902; repr. Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: Gresham, 1982), 227–28.

7. A biographical entry about Jane Lovett’s father, John Lovett, mentions his issue and their marriages, but not their respective marriage dates. See George Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham (London: J. and W. Robins, 1847), 3:462.

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1965;

Their gift to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1965.

John Smart—Miniaturist: 1741/2–1811, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 9, 1965–January 2, 1966, no cat., as Gentleman (perhaps Mr. Brennen, Recorder of Cork).

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 92, as Possibly Mr. Brennen, Recorder of Cork.

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 Man, Possibly Joseph or John Bennett, Recorder of Cork.

Possibly Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), 63, as Mr. Brennen, Recorder of Cork.

Daphne Foskett, “Miniatures by John Smart,” Antiques 90, no. 3 (September 1966): 354, (repro.), as Possibly Mr. Brennen, Recorder of Cork.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 92, p. 37, (repro.), as Possibly Mr. Brennen, Recorder of Cork.