George_Smart_(tailor)
George Smart (1774-1846) was an English tailor and folk artist notable for his cloth collage portraits and felt covered dummyboards. He lived in Frant, a village in East Sussex, England. His artworks were mentioned in several guidebooks of the time that encouraged tourists to visit his shop.[1] His most notable subjects were Old Bright, the local postman and The Goosewoman.[2] The Tunbridge Wells Museum owns ten examples of his work and Compton Verney Art Gallery[3] in Warwickshire has two pictures.[4]
In the summer of 2014, twenty one artworks by George Smart were included in Tate Britain's "British Folk Art" exhibition,[5] the first time his work had been gathered together in a major gallery and in such quantity. These included all the examples of his work owned by the Tunbridge Wells Museum, Kent.[6]
Until recently he has mostly been the subject of a few paragraphs in Folk art compendiums,[7] but is now recognised as one of the key figures within the history of English Folk Art.[8] Unusually for a Folk Artist, he is the known creator of around 100 works[9]
The first monograph on Smart called, George Smart: The Tailor of Frant, Artist in Cloth & Velvet Figures was published in the UK in March 2016. A website devoted to the life and work of George Smart, The Tailor of Frant is now available here: georgesmartfrant.wordpress.com[10]