1774
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of Sukey, Lady Oglander, née Serle is a 1774 unspecified by John Smart, a Rococo painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This is a tiny, careful portrait of a woman in a white dress and blue sash. Her hair is powdered, her cheeks are pink, and she looks straight at you. Smart painted miniatures—small enough to hold in your hand. This one might be a practice sketch he kept. Artists often made these to test colors and shapes before the final piece. The Cleveland Museum thinks this was never turned into a finished miniature. If you like this quiet, detailed style, look up sfumato—a technique that softens edges so faces look smooth, like smoke.
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, and 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
