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Dated to 1777, this astonishingly detailed miniature portrays a lady wearing fashionable fur-trimmed dress; pearls studding her upswept hair. Unquestionably one of the most talented artists to work in miniature, Smart demonstrates here that even on the smallest scale he was capable of painting detail, replicating textures such as the fur trim here with a surety that most of his contemporaries were incapable of, even on an ivory disc three times larger. This portrait was possibly commissioned on the occasion of the sitter’s marriage.

Smart’s skills were aptly rewarded in this year, when he was elected Vice-president of the Incorporated Society of Artists.[1] The following year he ascended even higher to President. The last years of the 1770s were marked with an increase in patronage from the aristocracy, a section of society which had previously eluded Smart. He also painted many figures from the world of commerce and trade, particularly those connected with the East India Company and in 1785 he moved to India for ten years to capitalise on this burgeoning ‘ex-pat’ population.

[1] In the same year, a medal by John Kirk of John Smart was struck from a model by Joachim Smith, presumably to celebrate Smart’s accession to Vice-President