Mary Louisa Adams

Media - 1950.6.1 - SAAM-1950.6.1_1 - 1247
Copied Asher B. Durand, Mary Louisa Adams, 1835, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 1⁄8 in. (61.0 x 51.0 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Adams-Clement Collection, gift of Mary Louisa Adams Clement in memory of her mother, Louisa Catherine Adams Clement, 1950.6.1
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Artwork Details

Title
Mary Louisa Adams
Artist
Date
1835
Location
Dimensions
24 x 20 1⁄8 in. (61.0 x 51.0 cm.)
Credit Line
Adams-Clement Collection, gift of Mary Louisa Adams Clement in memory of her mother, Louisa Catherine Adams Clement
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Keywords
  • Portrait
  • Portrait female — Adams, Mary Louisa — child
Object Number
1950.6.1
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1950.6.1

Artwork Description

Mary Adams was born in 1828 in the White House while her grandfather John Quincy Adams was president. Asher Durand emphasized her rosy cheeks and conveyed a more reserved personality than that of her younger sister, Georgianna Frances, whose portrait is also in the Luce Center collection.

Luce Object Quote

“I am also doing one of [John Quincy Adams’s] little granddaughters . . . as a compliment to the old gentleman. She is a beautiful subject and by [three] sittings I have already got a good likeness . . . then I have promised to paint another grand daughter [sic] of Mr. Adams for himself, the sister of the other.” Asher B. Durand letter in Durand Papers, New York Public Library, quoted in A.B. Durand: 1796-1886, Montclair Art Museum, N.J., 1971