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Dating to the 1770s, this sketch shows the sitter wearing a fashionable cross-front dress, a delicate veil hanging from her upswept hair. Smart differed from his fellow miniaturists in producing highly detailed sketches of his sitters as a preliminary stage painting their miniatures. Many of these remained in his studio and were then disseminated onto the market by Smart’s descendants during the early 20th century. Often these drawings have the sitter’s name and colour notes, but this is not the case here. Presented as a complete portrait, the features beautifully coloured and described in watercolour, such sketches have since become highly prized by collectors of portrait miniatures.

The miniatures of John Smart are the very antithesis of his contemporary Richard Cosway’s light and free style - both painters offered their patrons very different styles. Smart’s dense, exacting finish and jewel-like colouration presented the sitter with a painterly honesty absent in Cosway’s miniatures. Although he was absent from England for nearly ten years whilst forging a career in India, Smart was active in the Incorporated Society of Artists, eventually holding the post of director and vice-president. He finally settled down in London in 1795 and remained there until his death in 18