1776
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of Mr. Gambier 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 powdered wig, painted on a slip of ivory no bigger than a credit card. His face is smooth, his coat a soft gray-blue. Smart made hundreds of these miniatures—small enough to tuck into a locket or carry in a pocket. Many were finished paintings, but this one is a quick sketch, kept in a private book. You can still see the faint pencil lines he used to map the face before adding color. To see more of these pocket-sized portraits, look up John I Smart (British, 1741–1811).
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
