Object Image

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams 1775–1852

Made during the first decade of the nineteenth century (before the advent of photography), this hollow-cut silhouette represents the period’s most popular form of portraiture. Because only limited visual information can be gleaned from profiles, historians often rely upon inscriptions, like the ones atop this portrait, to identify sitters. John Quincy Adams added the inscription to this silhouette in 1809, when he had it framed together with silhouettes of himself, John Adams, and Abigail Adams.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution ...

1809
Hollow-cut silhouette

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