John Smart, Portrait of Keith MacAlister, Colonel of the 5th Madras Native Cavalry, 1810

Chicago:

Maggie Keenan, “John Smart, Portrait of Keith MacAlister, Colonel of the 5th Madras Native Cavalry, 1810,” 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/10.37764/8322.5.1638.

MLA:

Keenan, Maggie. “John Smart, Portrait of Keith MacAlister, Colonel of the 5th Madras Native Cavalry, 1810,” 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: 10.37764/8322.5.1638.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

The scholar Daphne Foskett first identified this military sitter as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander in 1964,¹ most likely a mistaken interpretation, since there are no army records from that period of an individual with this name.² However, the presence of an inscribed John Smart drawing of a “Gen MacAlester” from around 1800–1810 in the Cleveland Museum of Art, with his very distinctive heterochromatic eyes, offers a more plausible sitter identification: the Scottish Colonel Keith MacAlister (Fig. 1).³ The discovery of a 1791 Smart portrait of MacAlister (Fig. 2), illustrated in a book on Scottish military heroes from the Isle of Skye, further solidifies this attribution.⁴

Keith MacAlister (1756–1820) was born in Skye on October 16, 1756,⁵ to Ronald MacAlister of Glenbarr and Cour, Argyllshire, and Anne MacDonald.⁶ Keith and his two younger brothers became distinguished soldiers of the Honourable East India Company army. He played a significant role in the Indian wars, rescuing his brother Colonel Matthew MacAlister from his four-year imprisonment after being left for dead on the Perimbancum battlefield and subsequently captured by the Nawab of Mysore, Hyder Ali (1761–1782).⁷ Following the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore, Ali’s son, Tipu Sultan (1751–1799), agreed to release prisoners, including Matthew MacAlister, which Keith witnessed and recorded in his book, A Concise Statement of Facts (1818).⁸

It is possible that Smart and MacAlister formed a friendship while the two were in India, which likely facilitated a reconnection nineteen years later in London, when MacAlister sat for the Cleveland and Kansas City portraits.⁹ The Smart drawing at Cleveland dates between 1800 and 1810 and curiously depicts him in civilian clothing.¹⁰ It remains uncertain whether the drawing or the Nelson-Atkins painting came first, but MacAlister bears the same posture and expression in both.¹¹ Smart captures the luminosity of the Scottish officer’s skin in the portraits; MacAlister’s native pallor is most visible in the blue branch of vein at his temple, although a hint of ruddiness cascades across his face. The abrupt shift in climate from India to England, and later Scotland, would have been a jarring transition for not only his skin, but also his light-sensitive eyes, a feature of his heterochromia.

Signed and dated 1810, this miniature was likely commissioned by MacAlister in response to his appointment as Colonel of the 5th Madras Native Cavalry in October of 1809.¹² Unfortunately, his success on the battlefield did not translate to success in love. MacAlister married a young woman named Eliza Allen (1792–1823) in 1814,¹³ but three years into their marriage he discovered that she was having an affair with Charles Candy, a London clerk. MacAlister dismissed her from his house and sought a divorce.¹⁴ He died immediately after the divorce was granted in 1820, and although Eliza appealed the decision, the case was dismissed upon her death.¹⁵ In Eliza’s death notice, it states the location of her demise: “In Ludgate-street, while on a visit to Charles Candy and Mrs. W. Candy.”¹⁶

MacAlister reflects her nuptial betrayal in a codicil to his will: “It being hereby my express intention that she [Eliza] shall be entitled to have nothing from my Estates.”¹⁷ A portrait of Eliza by the miniature painter Joseph Francis Burrell (English, 1770–1853), painted in happier times during the couple’s short union, remained with this portrait of MacAlister until a 1947 auction separated the two—much like the marital separation MacAlister sought before the end of his life.¹⁸ Now, the miniature of MacAlister shines on its own, as he confidently poses in a shimmering cavalry uniform with rows of silver lace and buttons, embellished with gold stars on his epaulette, an indication of his military prowess.

Notes

1. Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), pl. 28, fig. 101, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander. “General Macalister” is listed in Foskett’s Appendix A of Smart’s sitters, but no illustration is included.

2. A trade card for John Norborn was discovered inside the case. An uncropped version of the trade card is located at the British Museum: Trade Card of John Norborn, printseller, 153 High Holborn, ca. 1802, engraving on paper trade card, 3 x 4 9/16 in. (7.7 x 11.6 cm), British Museum, London, D,2.399. According to a criminal court case at Old Bailey in 1800, “Thomas Yeule was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 7th of April, a picture, value 5s, the property of John Norborn. John Norborn sworn. ‘I live in Holborn: I deal in pictures, and all kind of curiosities.’” See “Trial of Thomas Yeule,” May 28, 1800, Old Bailey Proceedings Online, ref. t18000528-109, p. 396, https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/record/t18000528-109. The verso of the Nelson-Atkins trade card is inscribed “Keith Michael Alexander” in a twentieth-century hand. This attribution was probably aided by the “KMA” monogram on the verso of the miniature’s case. According to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s catalogue entry, “no record of a soldier by the name of Keith Michael Alexander has been discovered.” See Cory Korkow, British Portrait Miniatures, ed. Jon L. Seydl (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2013), 202.

3. According to the Cleveland Museum of Art, “This inscription is not in the artist’s hand and almost certainly a later addition”; Korkow, British Portrait Miniatures, 199.

4. John Mac Innes, Brave Sons of Skye (Edinburgh: Norman Macleod, 1899), 69. See Catalogue of Miniatures and Jacobite Relics, Property of Allan Reginald Macdonald (1864–1936), Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, May 21, 1937, lot 36, as Major-General Keith M’Alister, of Loup. It remains uncertain why this 1791 portrait was painted, but John Smart may also have completed a miniature of Matthew MacAlister in 1796; see Innes, The Brave Sons of Skye, 69n2. An artist is not listed, but the style resembles Smart’s work. The miniature was in the collection of Miss Susan M. Martin of Glendale.

5. According to the “MacAllister Family Tree” digitized on Ancestrylibrary.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/family-tree/tree/102057858/family?cfpid=340012538439.

6. Sometimes spelled “Ranald.” Anne was the daughter of Alexander MacDonald of Kingsburgh. According to the “MacAllister Family Tree” digitized on Ancestrylibrary.com, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/family-tree/tree/102057858/family?cfpid=340012538439.

7. Mac Innes, Brave Sons of Skye, 69. For more on the events of British officers’ imprisonment, see Robert G. Wallace, Forty Years in the World; or, Sketches and Tales of a Soldier’s Life (London: Cox and Baylis, 1825), 1:131.

8. Keith MacAlister, A Concise Statement of Facts, Regarding the Negotiation between the East India Company and Tippoo Sultaun, Concluded at Mangalore, in the Year 1784 (Edinburgh: James Ballantyne, 1818).

9. “War-Office, November 14, 1809,” The London Gazette, November 11, 1809; “Macalister Gen. 88, Wimpole-St.,” Holden’s Annual London and County Directory of the United Kingdoms and Wales, vol. 1 (London: W. Holden, 1811), n.p.

10. While his attire and hairstyles differ, there appear to be similar creases beneath his left armpit and a similar treatment of the way his white stock angles down once it meets his jawline, suggesting that one may be a copy after the other. It is possible that Smart rendered the civilian clothing from his imagination, being familiar with the drapery of a man’s jacket, or copied the attire from another portrait. See a similar jacket cut in John Smart, Portrait of Colonel Reynolds, 1810, watercolor on ivory, 3 3/8 x 3 in. (8.6 x 7.7 cm), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, P.8-1984.

11. The drawing includes a trompe l’oeil frame and landscape background that suggests an intended print version, but that theory would make more sense if MacAlister were wearing his uniform. A circulated print of a celebrated army officer would only work if he were depicted in uniform. Korkow argues that the background likely had personal significance to MacAlister, possibly depicting Scotland or Seringapatam and the Cauvery River, the site of the conflict with Ali and Tipu Sultan. Korkow, British Portrait Miniatures, 199. This personal token perhaps implies that the picture was meant for MacAlister’s own collection, or as a gift to a friend or family member.

12. Mac Innes, Brave Sons of Skye, 68; John Mathison and Alexander Way Mason, A New Oriental Register and East-India Directory, for 1802 (London: Black and Parry, 1802), 124. MacAlister was appointed Lieutenant Colonel in 1799 and Major General in 1812.

13. “Keith McAlister marriage license,” Saddell and Skipness, Argyll, Scotland, FHL film number: 1041076, Scottish Record Office, cc8/6/138 and 139. MacAlister was “induced to sanction their connection by regular marriage” on June 22, 1814, after suffering a stroke at his estate in Argyll, Scotland. MacAlister returned to London to receive better medical attention at the end of 1815. See “Torrisdale Castle: LB18396,” Historic Environment Scotland, accessed June 10, 2022, https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/LB18396. The title “Loup” was subsequently added to his name, along with “Torrisdale,” after he built Torrisdale Castle in 1815. Architect James Gillespie Graham (Scottish, 1776–1855) designed the castle. After 1815, MacAlister is referred to as “MacAlister of Loup and Torrisdale.”

14. Leah Leneman, Alienated Affections: Divorce and Separation in Scotland 1684–1830 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019), 171; Commissary Court Records, CC8/6/138 and CC8/6/139, National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh.

15. Leneman, Alienated Affections, 173.

16. “Monthly Memoranda: Deaths,” The European Magazine and London Review 84 (July 1823): 564.

17. “Will of Keith Macalister, October 27, 1820,” PROB 11/1635/315, National Archives, Kew.

18. See Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Enamels and Snuff Boxes, property of Robert Henry Rockliff (ca. 1893–1963), Sotheby’s, London, November 11, 1947, lot 116, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander and Eliza.

Unknown owner, by April 8, 1946 [1];

Purchased from the unknown owner’s sale, Oriental and European Ivories and Works of Art and Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, April 8, 1946, lot 147, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by Hans Backer, London, 1946 [2];

Probably purchased from Backer by Robert Henry Rockliff (ca. 1893–1963), Compton Grange, Eastbourne, England, by 1947 [3];

Purchased from his sale, Fine Portrait Miniatures, Enamels, and Snuff Boxes, Sotheby’s, London, November 11, 1947, lot 116, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by S. J. Phillips, London, 1947 [4];

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1964–1965 [5];

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

Notes

[1] In the Sotheby’s April 8, 1946, sale catalogue, “Other Properties” sold lots 137–49.

[2] It was described in the sales catalogue as “A very fine miniature of Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by John Smart, signed and dated 1810, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, gaze directed at spectator, in red tunic with silver facings and epaulettes, large oval, 3 3/8in; and another of his wife, Eliza, by J. F. Burrell, seated in a chair, wearing a black Empire dress with a lace yoke and red shawl, her lace cap bordered with seed pearls, holding a letter in her hand, inscribed Eliza, coiled hair at back, oval, 2 3/4in.”

According to Art Prices Current, vol. 24 (1945–1946), Backer bought lot 147 for £110. “Backer” is most likely Hans Backer, a popular portrait miniature dealer.

[3] Also referred to as Robert H. Rockliff, sometimes spelled Rockliffe.

[4] It was described in the sales catalogue as “A very fine miniature of Colonel Keith Michael Alexander, by John Smart, signed and dated 1810, head and shoulders three-quarters dexter, gaze directed at spectator, in red tunic, with silver facings and epaulettes, black collar and stock, large oval, 3 3/8 in.; and another of his wife Eliza, by J. F. Burrell, seated in a chair, wearing black Empire dress with lace yoke and red shawl, lace cap with seed pearls and a rosebud, holding a letter inscribed ‘Eliza’, coiled hair at back, oval, 2 3/4in. Sold in these Rooms, 8th April, 1946.”

According to the attached price list, S. J. Phillips bought lot 116 for £130. S. J. Phillips Ltd is a British antiques dealer, founded in 1869.

[5] See Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), pl. 28, fig. 101, (repro.), where the portrait is in the “Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Starr, Kansas City.”

John Smart, Portrait of Major-General Keith M’Alister, of Loup, 1791, watercolor on ivory, sold in Christie’s Catalogue of Miniatures and Jacobite Relics, London, May 21, 1937, lot 36, the property of Allan Reginald Macdonald (1864–1936), Waternish, Skye, Scotland.

John Smart, Portrait of General Keith MacAlister, ca. 1800–1810, watercolor and graphite, 6 7/8 x 5 1/2 in. (17.4 x 14 cm), Cleveland Museum of Art, 1997.77.

John Smart—Miniaturist: 1741/2–1811, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, December 9, 1965–January 2, 1966, no cat., as Officer.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 143, as Unknown Officer.

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 Keith MacAlister, Colonel of the 5th Madras Native Cavalry.

Catalogue of Oriental and European Ivories and Works of Art and Portrait Miniatures, Sotheby’s, London, April 8, 1946, lot 147, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.

Catalogue of Fine Portrait Miniatures, Enamels, and Snuff Boxes, Sotheby’s, London, November 11, 1947, lot 116, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.

Daphne Foskett, John Smart: The Man and His Miniatures (London: Cory, Adams, and Mackay, 1964), pl. 28, fig. 101, (repro.), as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.

Antiques 90 (July–December 1966): 356, fig. 16, as Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 143, p. 50, (repro.), as Unknown Officer.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York City: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 175, (repro.), as Unknown Officer.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 84, (repro.), as Portrait of Colonel Keith Michael Alexander.