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DURAND, Asher after Thomas SULLY
John Quincy Adams, President of the United States
Philadelphia: W.H Morgan, 114 Chestnut Street, Oct. 6, 1826. Copper engraving. In excellent condition apart from minor occasional creasing in the sheet. Image size: 20 3/16 x 13 13/16 inches. Plate mark: 23 5/8 x 15 3/8 inches. Sheet size: 26 5/8 x 18 1/2 inches.
A magnificent example of this famous portrait of John Quincy Adams by Asher Durand, one of the best American engravers.
Asher Durand was hailed as "the most famous engraver in America" and "the father of American landscape painting". His bold clean style was an immediate success, and he consequently produced some of the most important engravings in American print history. His "Musidora" and his Presidential series, are among the most cherished prints of the period, and his contribution to American landscape painting helped form the nation's artistic identity. Durand's magnificent portrait of John Quincy Adams is the quintessential example of his superior technique. Its clean lines and meticulous attention to detail create a magnetic image which immediately captivates the viewer's attention. Surrounded by maps and books Adams is portrayed as the quintessential enlightened president. His portrait, in composition and execution, is a wonderful example of presidential portraiture, and it is no wonder that the public clamored to purchase this magnificent image.
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was a brilliant, independent minded man, who was perhaps the best prepared of all the Presidents, having had a superb education, a career as an ambassador and having been a Senator. Intellectually qualified, he lacked charisma and charm, rather like his father. He was not at all like a modern day politician. A few years after his one term presidency, he returned to Washington as congressman for his Massachusetts district, a position he held until the end of his life.
In this portrait, we sense the intellectual intensity of his truly formidable mind and knowledge, as well as the disinclination for personal contact in his preoccupied, averted gaze.
Stauffer, American Engravers on Copper and Steel vol. II 551, state i/ii, vol. I p. 72; Cunningham, Popular Images of the Presidency: From Washington to Lincoln p. 44-146
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#8641 $4,000.00 
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© 2002-2005 Donald A. Heald
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