Asher Brown Durand, during 1835, painted four portraits in oil of John Quincy Adams in the months before his sixty-eighth birthday. The first, done in March, was commissioned by Luman Reed of New York City as a part of his plan to create a collection of likenesses of the seven men who had been President of the United States. These he intended to present to a public institution. The third, for which Adams sat during June, was also done for Reed, who intended to retain a second set of the seven portraits for himself. The fourth, a replica of the third, was completed at nearly the same time, apparently, under circumstances that are not known. For a full account of the several versions and of the subsequent history of each, together with reproductions, see Andrew Oliver, Portraits of John Quincy Adams and His Wife, Cambridge, 1970, p. 168–179.

The second of the Durand portraits, that reproduced in the present volume, was painted between March and May, without additional sittings by Adams, and clearly was derived from the March likeness, though there are minor differences. This painting was undertaken by Durand at the instance of Charles Augustus Davis, also of New York and a friend of both Adams and Reed, who apparently had been helpful in arranging with the ex-President for the original sittings to Durand. In late March, when Davis and Reed together viewed, in Durand’s studio, what had come from those sittings, Davis was so taken with the likeness that then or soon thereafter he resolved to have Durand execute a replica of it for him. When the work was completed in May, Davis presented it to Mrs. Charles Francis Adams, sister of Sidney Brooks, Davis’ partner in the importing firm of Davis & Brooks. Charles Francis Adams, when he saw the painting in his home, pronounced it “a very good likeness” and the gift “a compliment and of the highest order.” See p. 141, below; vol. 3:4, above.

Two days later Adams had resolved that his father’s portrait should be included in the next exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery, and to that end enlisted the help of Isaac P. Davis, a friend of John Quincy Adams and influential in matters connected with the Gallery. Adams’ efforts were successful, and when he came to view the exhibition he was impressed with the “simplicity” of the portrait. On further viewing, he apparently came to feel some reservation about the “coloring” and persuaded Durand to “improve” it (p. 142, 144, viii 151, 166, 168, below). Durand’s work so pleased Adams, however, that, as a gift for his wife, he commissioned Durand to paint a likeness of Mrs. Adams’ father, Peter Chardon Brooks. When that portrait was completed, Adams, contemplating it and the portrait of his father, reflected, “My late acquisitions are very valuable.” See p. 160–161, 168, below. The portrait of Mr. Brooks is reproduced in vol. 2: following p. 304, above.

The Durand portrait of John Quincy Adams which was Mrs. Charles Francis Adams’ passed by descent to her son John Quincy Adams (1833–1894), in turn to his son Arthur, who presented it to Harvard University. It now hangs in the John Quincy Adams Dining Room of Adams House in Cambridge.