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Source Description
This portrait was assigned the historically colorful but fictitious title of “Anne of Denmark” at some point after memory of its true identity had been lost. Giving illustrious titles to portraits of unknown sitters was a popular strategy adopted by dealers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, often applied to miniature portraits and, in particular, to Smart’s sketches of women. Only the sitter’s head and neck are drawn, and a low-necked dress is faintly suggested. Her head is turned to the left, and her brown hair is dressed high, with flat curls against the back of her head. A lightly drawn veil falls over the back of the hair and shoulders. The sitter’s sagging jaw line and the lines beneath her blue-green eyes <br>suggest that she was painted as a mature woman. The sketch is generally faded, and the background is unpainted. The finished ivory miniature for which this drawing was presumably a preparatory sketch has not yet been discovered. <br>The sitter’s identification has been based on a later inscription in graphite on the verso of the paper backing. When the paper backing was removed from the back of the drawing in 2011, an inscription in brown ink in the artist’s hand was discovered. The writing appears to be a fragment, created when the small rectangle containing the portrait was cut from a larger sheet. It reads, “to be set[?] in . . . / and put in a Black / Frame largest . . . / [G . . .’s?] Size.” Above this, “very dark brown hair” is written in graphite.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
160121
label
Portrait of a Woman
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
160121
contentType
object
title
Portrait of a Woman
description
This portrait was assigned the historically colorful but fictitious title of “Anne of Denmark” at some point after memory of its true identity had been lost. Giving illustrious titles to portraits of unknown sitters was a popular strategy adopted by dealers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, often applied to miniature portraits and, in particular, to Smart’s sketches of women. Only the sitter’s head and neck are drawn, and a low-necked dress is faintly suggested. Her head is turned to the left, and her brown hair is dressed high, with flat curls against the back of her head. A lightly drawn veil falls over the back of the hair and shoulders. The sitter’s sagging jaw line and the lines beneath her blue-green eyes <br>suggest that she was painted as a mature woman. The sketch is generally faded, and the background is unpainted. The finished ivory miniature for which this drawing was presumably a preparatory sketch has not yet been discovered. <br>The sitter’s identification has been based on a later inscription in graphite on the verso of the paper backing. When the paper backing was removed from the back of the drawing in 2011, an inscription in brown ink in the artist’s hand was discovered. The writing appears to be a fragment, created when the small rectangle containing the portrait was cut from a larger sheet. It reads, “to be set[?] in . . . / and put in a Black / Frame largest . . . / [G . . .’s?] Size.” Above this, “very dark brown hair” is written in graphite.
date
c. 1775
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79980825
creators
3691
genreSpecific
Portrait Miniature
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 5.4 x 4.7 cm (2 1/8 x 1 7/8 in.); Secondary Support: 5.3 x 4.8 cm (2 1/16 x 1 7/8 in.)
cul
England, 18th century
accession
1997.82
Source extras
tec
gray and red wash over graphite, heightened with white gouache on laid paper
tombstone
Portrait of a Woman, c. 1775. John I Smart (British, 1741–1811). Gray and red wash over graphite, heightened with white gouache on laid paper; sheet: 5.4 x 4.7 cm (2 1/8 x 1 7/8 in.); secondary support: 5.3 x 4.8 cm (2 1/16 x 1 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry, 1997.82
supportMaterials
description
beige(1) laid paper, discolored to yellow-brown, laid down on light brown wove paper
collection
DR - British
inscriptions
inscription
verso, in bottom half, in graphite: Anne of / Denmark ; in top half, in graphite: 141 [upside down]
inscribed in graphite on verso of drawing, at top: very dark brown hair / . . . ry . . .; inscribed in brown ink on verso of drawing: to be set[s?] in . . . / and put in a Black / Frame largest . . . / [G . . .’s?] Size
didYouKnow
Mrs. A. Dean Perry, who donated this drawing to CMA, is the granddaughter of one of the museum’s founding members, Jeptha Homer Wade II.
citations
citation
Christie, Manson & Woods. <em>Ancient & Modern Pictures and Miniature Portraits</em>. 1928.
page_number
lot 9
citation
Foskett, Daphne.<em> John Smart: the Man and His Miniatures.</em> [London]: Cory, Adams & Mackay, 1964.
page_number
pp. 70, 89
citation
Korkow, Cory, and Jon L. Seydl.<em> British Portrait Miniatures: The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. 2013.
page_number
Cat. no. 38, pp. 170-171
creditline
Bequest of Mrs. A. Dean Perry
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:18:47.869000
sourceId
160121
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
gray and red wash over graphite, heightened with white gouache on laid paper
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
b8e0b801b94405b0