Louisa Catherine Adams, John Quincy Adams’s wife, had gimlet eyes, a satirist’s wit, and a sharp pencil. New York: Rizzoli, 2003.Louisa Catherine Adams, the wife of John Quincy Adams, denounced slavery in her writings but simultaneously feared the end of the practice. Becoming a Nation: Americana from the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. The subjects soon followed them, for in the summer John Quincy Adams returned to become Secretary of State (1817–25) in the administration of President James Monroe.Įxcerpted from Jonathan L. Robert Homans to her son, Robert Homans, Jr. 1886), the son of John Quincy Adams, in 1836 probably to his son, Charles Francis Adams (d. The portraits descended to Thomas Baker Johnson, brother of Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Charles Francis Adams (d. 75.39) were sent to America in late February 1817. The portraits of Adams and his wife (See Acc. In 1829, he wrote that “the Seal which you will find upon this Letter is a pythagorean Emblem of my whole political System.” 5 Oliver, 11. This extraordinary exegesis, together with his demeanor in the portrait, suggests Adams’s pride in representing America in London at this moment of resurgent nationalism following the successful conclusion of the War of 1812. It is the Lyre of Orpheus that now leads the Stars. That their force consists in their Union and that while thus United, it will be their destiny to revolve in harmony with the whole world by the attractive influence of their Union. That Harmony is the Soul of their combination. The moral application of the emblem is, that the same power of harmony which originally produced the institutions of civil government.now presides in the federal association of the American States. The thirteen original Stars form a border round the Seal.The motto from Manilius is upon the Lyre itself. I have assumed the American Eagle as the bearer of the Lyre. The modern Astronomers have connected a Vulture with the Constellation of the Lyre.Instead of that bird.

After the Death of Orpheus, his Lyre was placed among the Constellations, and there, according to the Astronomics of Manilius, still possesses its original charm.It is the Application of this Fable, and of this passage of Manilius, to the United States, the American political Constellation, that forms the device of the Seal. It was only in Harmony that the first human political institutions could be founded. The meaning of this Allegory is explained by Horace.Orpheus was a Legislator whose eloquence charmed the rude and savage men of his age to associate together in the State of civil Society.It was the Lyre of Orpheus that civilized Savage Man. Orpheus is said to have charmed Lions and Tygers. Adams elucidated the motto in his diary entry for September 7, 1816, the very day of his first sitting to Leslie. It combines an eagle and a lyre, and it bears a Latin motto, NUNC SIDERA DUCIT, which may be rendered “it now leads the stars,” an extremely erudite reference. The seal had deep significance for Adams. Leslie at first “did not incline to” Adams’s request to include the seal, and it is somewhat oddly placed on the back cover of the quarto volume. 2 Ibid., 62.Īdams holds a book, his forefinger marking his place, while his other fingers draw our attention to the design embossed on its binding-Adams’s seal, just received from a London engraver. Where Sense and sweetness joined with ease Adams was moved to write a poem in praise of the artist’s success, in which she singles out precisely these qualities: In its air of good humor and candor untinged with irony or asperity, it is rare among portraits of Adams. Nearly frontal, the substantial block of his body and head is drawn and modeled to convey strength of purpose and intellect. 1 Oliver, 59.Ī sense of physical and mental well-being pervades the figure. tells me his picture is likely to prove an excellent likeness at which I am much delighted as I think he never looked so well or so handsome as he does now.” He was generous in granting Leslie some fourteen sittings through October 31, and the young artist made the most of the opportunities. Adams wrote to her mother-in-law, Abigail, “Mr. On September 11, 1816, only four days after Leslie began work on the painting, Mrs. Watercolor on ivory in its gilded copper caseĪmong the multitude of characterizations of Adams, this portrait is striking for the serenity the artist captured in America’s then-Minister to Great Britain (1815–17).

Mrs john quincy adams