Mrs. Charlotte Lennox
1777
Medium
Pencil and watercolor on card
Dimensions
Oval, 2 1/2 x 2 in. (62 x 51 mm)
Classification
Miniatures
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1949
Accession Number
49.122.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Nestled in the intimate scale of an oval 2½ x 2-inch card, John Smart's 1777 portrait *Mrs. Charlotte Lennox* exemplifies the delicate artistry of 18th-century miniatures. Rendered in pencil and watercolor, this tiny gem captures the poised elegance of its sitter, a prominent literary figure known for her novel *The Female Quix* (1752) and her circles among London's intellectuals. Smart, a leading miniaturist of the Georgian era, specialized in these precious likenesses, often commissioned as personal keepsakes or jewelry pendants, reflecting the era's fascination with portable portraiture. T...