BY GEORGE SMART, CIRCA 1820

The artist George Smart (d. 1846) was by trade a tailor in the village of Frant, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He made figured pictures out of scraps of left-over cloth and became very popular supplying pictures to Queen Victoria's uncle, the Duke of Sussex. His pictures often included portraits of local figures. Smart's model for the 'Goosewoman' was probably Elisabeth Horne, a well known 'character' in Tunbridge Wells - a lithographic portrait by C.Hulton of Horne in 1830 at the age of 88 survives in the museum at Tunbridge Wells. A surviving collage indentifies 'The Postman' collages as 'Old Bright aged 87'. For identical lots of Regency pictures, see The Roger Warner Collection, sold Christie's, South Kensington, 20-21 January 2009, lots 480 (The Postman) and 481 (The Goose Woman) (£2,500 and £4,250, including premium, respectively).


COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
James Ayres, British Folk Art, Barrie and Jenkins, London 1976, Overlook Press, Woodstock, N.Y. 1977. p.88.