Louisa Adams 1775 -1852

Born London, United Kingdom
First Lady 1825–1829

Born in London, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams’s education at a convent school in France influenced her tactful approach to politics. Indeed, she went so far as to graciously host Andrew Jackson, one of her husband John Quincy Adams’s most difficult political foes. A talented harpist, Louisa Adams was exceptionally charismatic and loved to entertain. She was also a prolific writer, who used her position and political savvy to confront gender inequality in early American society. Adventures of a Nobody, begun around 1840, is one of the many autobiographical stories about her life.

This grand portrait, which captures Adams’s continental sophistication, was painted in London by Charles Robert Leslie. The sitting took place one year after Adams completed a harrowing six-week winter journey by sleigh from St. Petersburg to Paris. Her headdress and empire waist evoke the five years that Adams spent at the court of Czar Alexander I while her husband served as President Madison’s minister to Russia.

The Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.; gift of Robert Homans Jr., Lucy Aldrich Homans, and Abigail Homans, in memory of their father, Robert Homans