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The present work is an exceptionally well-preserved sketch by Smart, showing a mysterious sitter known on by his surname and London address. Named as ‘Maclane’ or ‘Macleane’, no one of that name can be found to match the address given. The sitter may have been of Scottish or Irish descent. No corresponding miniature can be found to match this sketch, which is particularly highly finished for a preparatory work.

Portman Square, next to where the sitter lived, was begun in 1764 as a speculative development by John Berkely Portman, MP, for whom it is named. It rapidly became one of the most fashionable addresses in London and ‘The residence of luxurious opulence,’ according to Priscilla Wakefield, the Quaker philanthropist and writer of children’s non-fiction books. Elegant and expensive, No. 20 was completed in 1777, around the date of the present portrait, for the Countess of Home by Robert Adam. By 1782, Montagu House was completed for Mrs Elizabeth Montagu who became a power in the literary world, and a founder of the Blue-Stocking Club.

Somerset street, the address given on this drawing, was also well-known for both artist’s quarters and suppliers to the art world, such as framers.[1]

[1] In his dairies, Joseph Farington notes that Richard Cosway and the watercolourist Francis Towne lived in Somerset Street in the later 1760s. George Stubbs also lived in the same street – a house he occupied from 1763 until his death in 1806. Somerset Street was demolished after the Second World War. Farington 1978, p.694.