The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Portrait of a Man

Portrait of a Man

c. 1775
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Edward B. Greene gave his renowned collection of portrait miniatures to the Cleveland Museum of Art primarily during the 1940s, while drawings such as this came only later, donated by his daughter.

Description

G. C. Williamson was the first to suggest that Smart’s sketches were well known and that they were preparatory studies for the painted miniatures. Williamson listed the names of sitters from the sketches known to him at the time, and they included Mr. Batson (the identification formerly given to the sitter in this portrait). His head and shoulders face left. He has blue-green eyes and dark eyebrows and wears his powdered hair en queue. His coat has a narrow collar, under which he dons a high collar and frilled vest. A band of black around his neck hints at perhaps another collar, a waistcoat, or a ribbon from which an undesignated ornament hangs. The color of his attire is not suggested, and the background is unpainted. The finished ivory miniature for which this drawing was presumably a preparatory sketch has not yet been discovered. The sitter has been known as Mr. Batson at least since it was so catalogued in the 1928 Smirke sale. This appellation is based on a later inscription in graphite on the verso of the paper backing. When the paper backing was removed from the back of the drawing in 2011, a faint, partly legible inscription was discovered: “. . . Bracelet / . . . pring to . . . / cloth cape . . . / . . .”
  • Until 1811
    John Smart (1741-1811); by inheritance to his daughter Sarah Smart
    1811-c. 1853
    Sarah Smart (1781-1853), daughter of the artist by Sarah Midgeley, gifted to Mary Smirke
    c. 1853
    Mary Smirke (d. 1853, Slough), by inheritance to her brother Sydney Smirke
    1853-77
    Sydney Smirke (1798-1877). by inheritance to his daughter Mrs. Lange
    1877-1928
    Mrs. Lange (née Smirke, d. 1928). by inheritance to her brother Edward Smirke
    1928
    Edward Smirke
    December 10, 1928
    Sale: Christie’s, London, December 10, 1928 (lot 8)
    1928
    Leo Schidlof (1886–1966), Paris, France, sold to Edward B. Greene
    1928-c. 1957
    Edward B. Greene (1878–1957), Cleveland, OH, by inheritance to his daughter Helen Perry
    c. 1957-1996
    Helen Perry (née Greene, 1911–1996, Cleveland).
    1996-97
    Estate of Mrs. A. Dean Perry (Helen Perry), gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1997-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Christie, Manson & Woods. Ancient & Modern Pictures and Miniature Portraits. 1928. lot 8
    Foskett, Daphne. John Smart: the Man and His Miniatures. [London]: Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1964. pp. 62, 89
    Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl. British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art. 2013. Cat. no. 37, pp. 167-169
  • Disembodied: Portrait Minatures and their Contemporary Relatives. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 10, 2013-February 16, 2014).
    Royal Amateur Art Society Exhibition of Miniatures, Moncorvo House, London, England (March 5-8, 1904).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Man|url=false|author=John I Smart|year=c. 1775|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1997.81