American Art Collaborative

“Fanny” Adams was the granddaughter of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. She was five years old when Asher Durand created this portrait. Like so many children of that era, she died young, succumbing to illness only two years later. But Durand’s painting preserves the joyful spirit of a beloved daughter, and puts a human face on the history of the Adams dynasty
“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., 197