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Sir George Thomas Smart

1 of 16 portraits by William Bradley

Sir George Thomas Smart, by William Bradley, 1829 -NPG 1326 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Regency Portraits Catalogue

Sir George Thomas Smart

by William Bradley
1829
29 in. x 24 in. (737 mm x 610 mm)
NPG 1326

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated in red paint lower left: WB/1829.

This portraitback to top

The portrait was a Smart family heirloom and became the subject of a legal case on the death of Smart's daughter, 'In the Goods of Ann Caroline Smart, Deceased' before Mr Justice Gorrell Barnes (The Times, 12 and 17 June 1902). Miss Smart had expressed a wish written in a notebook marked Hints for Executors that her father's portrait should go to the NPG, but the Probate Registrar refused to grant Probate on technical grounds although admitting the clarity of Miss Smart's intention. The portrait was therefore valued by an independent arbiter (Graves) and bought by the NPG for £15. A copy was made, with the Trustees' permission, for another branch of the family who were disappointed that the portrait had been bequeathed elsewhere. The choice of Bradley to paint the portrait was possibly due to the chronic difficulty of pinning down the more fashionable Lawrence for a sitting.

Physical descriptionback to top

Half-length to left holding sheet of music (Glee 4 Voices) signed: G T Smart, dark green coat, yellow waistcoat, white neckcloth and cravat, silver oval spectacles; grey hair touched with red, hazel eyes, ruddy complexion.

Provenanceback to top

Family possession descending to Miss Ann Caroline Smart and bought from her executors after litigation 1902.

Exhibitionsback to top

Third Exhibition of National Portraits, South Kensington, 1868 (105) lent by Lady Smart; 'Beethoven and England', Exeter University, 1970 (81).

Reproductionsback to top

Lithograph vignette published by Colnaghi & Co (example in British Museum).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: Richard Walker, Regency Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, 1985, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Sir George Thomas Smart