Portrait of a Man
Medium
watercolor on ivory in a gold frame
Dimensions
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Classification
Portrait Miniature
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
The Edward B. Greene Collection
Accession Number
1949.546
Tags
About this artwork
John Smart painted this miniature in India, where he was based in Madras. The unidentified sitter has gray-brown eyes and powdered hair worn en queue. Smart painted the hair with a combination of loose brushstrokes, over which fine white lines are applied to suggest individual hairs and create movement that is carried through the stippling of the face. The manner in which he mixed his colors sometimes resulted in an alteration of the pigment, causing a sitter’s hair to appear pinkish, as can be ...