Charles Francis Adams
1827
Medium
Painting-Miniature
Classification
Painting-Miniature
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Henry L. Milmore
Accession Number
1950.4.34
Tags
About this artwork
Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886) was the son of John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams. His youth was spent in St. Petersburg and Paris, until his father was recalled to become secretary of state. After graduating from Harvard in 1825, he spent the next three years unemployed in Washington, D.C. He was elected to the Massachusetts legislature and the U.S. Congress, and was appointed minister to the Court of St. Jamesâs in London. He also found time to publish ten volumes of the ...
Art Historical Context
This delicate miniature portrait of Charles Francis Adams, painted by Anson Dickinson in1827, captures the young scion of America's founding family at age 20 Dickinson, a skilled practitioner of the miniature format, renders Adams in a bust view, likely highlighting his poised intellect and patrician features Miniatures like this were cherished personal keepsakes in the early 19th centurysmall-scale works on ivory or vellum, designed for lockets or private display, bridging the gap before photography's invention. Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886), son of President John Quincy Adams and Louisa...
About the Artist
Anson Dickinson · 1779–1852
1779–1852