Peter Boylston Adams?
ca. 1765-1770
Medium
Painting-Miniature
Classification
Painting-Miniature
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mary Elizabeth Spencer
Accession Number
1999.27.7
Tags
About this artwork
This miniature is thought to show Peter Boylston Adams, who was born in Norfolk, Massachusetts, in 1738. Peter was the brother of the second president of the United States, John Adams, and a captain in the Revolutionary War. He married Mary Crosby in 1768, and this miniature may have been painted to commemorate their wedding.
About the Artist
John Singleton Copley · 1738–1815
John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) was the greatest American painter of the colonial era and one of the finest portraitists in the English-speaking world. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he was largely self-taught, learning from mezzotint reproductions of European paintings and from his stepfather Peter Pelham, an engraver. By his early twenties, Copley had established himself as Boston's leading po...