John Smart was one of the greatest exponents of miniature painting of the 18th century. His superior talent as an artist was evident from a young age when he won second prize in a drawing competition for children under 14 held by the Society of Arts in 1754. First prize was awarded to Richard Cosway and both artists went on to train under William Shipley (1714-1803) as apprentices. By 1762 Smart was a member of the Society of Artists, a small organisation formed by a number of artists who struggled to obtain models to sit for them. Under the leadership of Mr Michael Moser, R.A., the group would meet in an apartment in Arundel Street and later in St Martin's Lane, London, before securing a larger room in the Foundling Hospital. The bare walls were hung with portraits and landscapes and when the hospital opened the room to the public, it became such a popular destination that the Society decided to stage regular exhibitions in association with an artistic establishment. This was one of a number of similar societies that emerged in the 1760s and which eventually led to the formation of the Royal Academy which held its first exhibition in 1769 under the Presidency of Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1771 Smart was made a Director of the Incorporated Society of Artists and in 1777 he was elected Vice-President. From 1785 to 1795 Smart was in India (see lot 110 for further information about his time in India) and in 1791 the Society was wound up after a series of financial difficulties anda period of five years during which no exhibitions had been held.
John Smart had three children with his first wife, who later eloped with another artist, William Pars, and died in Italy: John (b. 1762) who died young; Anna Maria (1766-1813), who accompanied her father to India and married Robert Woolf of the Madras Civil Service and had nine children; and Sophia (1770-1793). He went on to have a son, John (1776-1809), who became the miniature painter known as John Smart Junior and a daughter, Sarah (1781-1853) with a lady called Sarah Midgeley.
Smart returned to London in 1795 and at some point between 1795 and 1805 he married his second wife, Edith, about whom little is known. On her death he married, in 1805, Mary Morton with whom he had a son, John James. By this time his wealth had diminished significantly, possibly as a result of his failure to obtain payment from the nawab of Arcot in India (amongst other patrons), and the failure of Incorporated Society of Artists to repay a loan they had received from Smart in an attempt to remedy the Society's financial situation.
In 1808 Smart's son, John Smart Junior, who had established himself as a portrait miniature painter in London and most likely trained under his father, was granted permission by the Court of Directors of the East India Company to go and work as a miniaturist in India. Tragically, in 1809, he died shortly after arriving in India, leaving his father bereft.
John Smart died on 1 May 1811 and his obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1811, LXXXI, Part I, p. 599 read 'In his 70th year, after an illness of only nine days, John Smart, Esq., of Russell Place, Fitzroy Square, miniature painter. To most philanthropic and hospitable principles, he added great eminence as an artist; his surprising likenesses in miniature being justly admired in his native country and the East Indies, where he practised for some years with great and deserved reputation.' For further information see D. Foskett, John Smart, The Man and his Miniatures, London, 1964.