A fine example of the only certain lifetime portrait of Adam Smith, a profile portrait bust by the Scottish modeller and portrait medallionist James Tassie (1735-99).
“In 1793 Dugald Stewart, who had known Smith, stated that ‘the medallion of Tassie conveys an exact idea of his profile, and of the general expression of his countenance’; it is the only satisfactory likeness of Smith and was conceivably modelled from the life. It was copied in Wedgwood paste, and a reduced version in enamel was described by Gray as taken from a gem engraved by Thomas Warner after Tassie; a derivative bust by Boog appeared on a Scottish penny token of 1797.” (National Portrait Gallery description)
“Tassie’s fuelling of this neo-classical rage [for copies of ancient cameos and intaglio gemstones], which took him as far as Paris in early 1785 to seek new collections, was paralleled by a series of portraits of contemporaries, and it is on these that his artistic reputation now rests. Usually modelled from life, they are a modest but intensely observed vision of a whole society. Many, though not all, were, in Tassie’s words, of ‘the first people in the Kingdom’, including such figures as Robert Adam, Hugh Blair, James Hutton, admirals Keppel and Duncan, Lord Mansfield, and Adam Smith—this last, modelled in 1787, being the only authentic portrait of the great economist.
“Much technical information on the production of these portraits, as well as information on his business generally, may be found in the largest body of Tassie’s surviving correspondence, a group of sixty-nine letters sent to the Glasgow bookseller and stationer Alexander Wilson. The first stage, nearly always of the head and shoulders in profile, and about 3 inches in height, was modelled in red wax. This was followed by concave and convex plaster casts, from the latter of which a vitreous paste mould was made, the final step before the cameo portrait was cast in the same material. These portraits were also neo-classical in essence, and their intended resemblance to marble might finally be enhanced by grinding the surface or treating it with hydrofluoric acid. The image was then mounted on a sheet of oval glass, clear or translucent, behind which was placed a piece of blue or greenish paper. From about 1773, however, having enlarged his furnace, Tassie was able to cast image and background in one piece, though always with difficulty. Despite the technical problems associated with size, Tassie’s enamel (the word he tended to use) had the great quality of not shrinking, unlike Wedgwood’s ceramic material, as Tassie himself pointed out with some glee.
“It remains unclear how large the ‘editions’ of these portraits were, though they seem to have been small in number unless the subject, such as Viscount Duncan, was of immediate public interest. If commissioned, a fee of 5 guineas was charged for the initial sitting (there were usually three sittings), and the final cost of the portrait in the 1780s ranged from 10s. 6d. to 1 guinea. Tassie was always willing to travel to his sitters, and late in 1791 he was modelling portraits in Edinburgh and Glasgow. During this expedition he must have met the painter Henry Raeburn, for there is a medallion self-portrait of Raeburn in Tassie’s enamel, dated 1792, which Tassie must have cast on the painter’s behalf when he had returned to London.” - ODNB
Other examples of Tassie’s original vitreous glass medallion portrait of Adam Smith are in the National Portrait Gallery London, Scottish National Portrait Gallery (2 examples), Dyrham Park (National Trust), Harvard Art Museums, Glasgow University (Hunterian Gallery). Original examples are very scarce in commerce, and the originals are not to be confused with the reproductions made by Josiah Wedgewood in 1860.
