It is recorded that in 1755 he was runner up to Richard Cosway in a drawing competition for under-14s held by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

In the same year he began attending the new drawing school of William Shipley in London, along with Cosway and Richard Crosse.

His work is entirely different from that of Cosway, quiet and grey in its colouring, with the flesh tints elaborated with much subtlety and modelled in exquisite fashion.

[3] The most important collection of Smart's work was given by John W. and Martha Jane Phillips Starr to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

[3] Smart taught portrait painting to Isabella Beetham,[4] who was one of Britain's finest silhouette artists in the 18th century.