1776
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of M. de Viapre is a 1776 unspecified by John Smart, a Rococo painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This is a tiny portrait of a man in a dark coat, his face lit softly against a plain background. The brushstrokes are so fine you can barely see them—just a few hairs on his powdered wig. It’s actually a practice sketch, not the finished piece. The artist kept hundreds of these rough drafts, like a writer saving notes. The smudges and quick lines show how he tested light and shadow before the final version. If you like this quiet, careful style, look up *sfumato*—the technique of blending tones so smoothly you can’t see the edges.
Although it is impossible to say if it was always part of the artist’s process to execute a preparatory sketch prior to painting each miniature, we do know that John Smart retained many hundreds of these sketches. A group of preparatory sketches—of which this portrait is one—descended through the Smirke family after Smart’s daughter Sarah gave a sketchbook containing preparatory portrait studies to her friend Mary Smirke, sister of the celebrated Victorian architect Sydney Smirke. This book was probably broken up around 1877 when it was divided between Sydney’s daughters Mary Jemmett and Mrs.…
Sketches helped John Smart work out the particulars of a portrait before commencing the miniature on ivory; they were useful in the event that a duplicate might later be required.
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.
See the richer artist page
