1775
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of a Woman is a 1775 unspecified by John Smart, a Rococo painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a small, close-up portrait of a woman’s face and neck. Her dark hair is pulled back, and she wears a faint, low-necked dress. The background is plain, so all the focus stays on her. This isn’t a finished painting—it’s a quick sketch, probably done in one sitting. Dealers later gave it a fancy name, "Anne of Denmark," even though no one knows who she really was. That kind of made-up title was common for portraits like this. If you like these small, careful portraits, look up John I Smart (British, 1741–1811)—he made a lot of them.
This portrait was assigned the historically colorful but fictitious title of “Anne of Denmark” at some point after memory of its true identity had been lost. Giving illustrious titles to portraits of unknown sitters was a popular strategy adopted by dealers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, often applied to miniature portraits and, in particular, to Smart’s sketches of women. Only the sitter’s head and neck are drawn, and a low-necked dress is faintly suggested. Her head is turned to the left, and her brown hair is dressed high, with flat curls against the back of her head. A…
Mrs. A. Dean Perry, who donated this drawing to CMA, is the granddaughter of one of the museum’s founding members, Jeptha Homer Wade II.
Read the full account in the museum source.
John Smart (1 May 1741 – 1 May 1811) was an English painter who specialised in portrait miniatures. He was a contemporary of Richard Cosway, George Engleheart, William Wood and Richard Crosse.
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