Regency period original George Smart leather, cloth and watercolour framed collage depicting “Old Bright”, a colourful character, reportedly a postman who lived near Tunbridge Wells where Smart lived and worked. As with many of Smarts works this example retains its original label on verso marked "G. Smart, Maker of Cloth & Velvet Figures, Frant, Near Tunbridge Wells. ...".
Which Smart designed, printed and placed on the back of his work as a method or self-promotion.
Much has been written about the work of Smarts work, which can be found in several British museum collections, Including Compton Verney, the home of the British Folk Art Collection, in Warwickshire, and the Tunbridge Wells Museum in Kent. Smart worked as a tailor and folk artist and became known for his cloth collage portraits and felt covered dummy boards. He lived in Frant, in East Sussex. As with many naive and folk artists, Smart had a propensity to produce multiple variations of the same subject matter, of which Old Bright, the local postman, or the Goosewoman. A companion piece which depicts a bonneted elderly woman, wearing a red cape and carrying a basket with dead gees.
In the summer of 2014, the Tate Britain organised a "British Folk Art" exhibition which included twenty-one artworks by George Smart which was the first time his work had been acknowledged and exhibited in a major gallery. He is now recognized as one of the key figures within the history of English Folk Art.
George Smart: The Tailor of Frant, Artist in Cloth & Velvet Figures was published in the UK in March 2016.
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