![]() Upon completion, he established himself in London and because of his aristocratic connections, he became an immediate success. After four years, he spent two years in Rome studying the old Masters. Reynolds was a portrait painter in the continental Grand Style.Īt an early age, Reynolds was apprenticed to Thomas Hudson, a successful London portrait painter. He has been heralded as having a keen understanding of human nature and as the most significant English artist of his day. His book, Analysis of Beauty, argued that the undulating lines and S-curves prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace and beauty. ![]() Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. These ‘moralizing’ series are regarded as important historical and social documents. The paintings, carefully composed as any Italian painting of the classical tradition, are filled with detail and allusions to each other, so that the viewer has the sensation of reading a story without words. His most notable paintings, The Harlot’s Progress, The Rake’s Progress, and Marriage a la Mode teach by example, pointing out the foibles of the rich and the depths of degradation of those who have fallen from the narrow path of middle-class virtue. He is best known for his series of paintings of ‘modern moral subjects’. He decided to create a new type of painting that would appeal to his countrymen. Hogarth rejected this view and believed that his work was just as good as those works being bought for substantial amounts from abroad. Smart married Edith Vere, and is believed to have had only one son, who died in Madras in 1809.Hogarth was a printmaker, portrait painter, social critic, and editorial cartoonist.Īristocratic art collectors did not respect English painters and sought works by Italian masters. Smart taught portrait painting to Isabella Beetham, who was one of Britain's finest silhouette artists in the 18th century. Several of his miniatures are in Australia and belong to a cadet branch of the family. Many of his pencil drawings still exist in the possession of the descendants of a great friend of his only sister. The Starr collection includes a signed and dated miniature for each year of Smart's career, from 1760 to 1811, enabling scholars to view the full progression of Smart's style and technique as well as the changing fashions of the period. and Martha Jane Phillips Starr to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The most important collection of Smart's work was given by John W. He possessed a great knowledge of anatomy, and his portraits are drawn with greater anatomical accuracy and possess more distinction than those of any miniature painter of his time. His work is entirely different from that of Cosway, quiet and grey in its colouring, with the flesh tints elaborated with much subtlety and modelled in exquisite fashion. A number of his preparatory drawings and sketches survive. Smart mainly painted watercolour miniatures on ivory, and often clearly signed and dated his work. He was a man of simple habits, and a member of the Society of Sandemanians. He settled down in London in 1797, latterly in Fitzroy Street, and died there in 1811. He went to India in 1788 and obtained a number of commissions in that country. ![]() ![]() He exhibited at the Society of Artists, in London, from 1762 onwards and became its president in 1778. In the same year he began attending the new drawing school of William Shipley in London, along with Cosway and Richard Crosse. It is recorded that in 1755 he was runner up to Richard Cosway in a drawing competition for under-14s held by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Smart was born in Norfolk, but not much is known of his early life. He was a contemporary of Richard Cosway, George Engleheart, William Wood and Richard Crosse. John Smart ( – ), was an English painter of portrait miniatures.
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