John Adams

One of several portraits of John Adams in the Athenæum’s collection, this canvas was painted from life in Philadelphia by Gilbert Stuart, the leading portraitist of the day. It was first owned by William Smith Shaw, nephew of Adams’s wife Abigail and the first Librarian of the Boston Athenæum. For some years, the painting was thought to be a copy after Stuart by his nephew Gilbert Stuart Newton and has only recently been identified as the original.