On pears and a lost portrait by a female artist - photo 1

On pears and a lost portrait by a female artist

Lot 126
17.01.2024 11:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 20 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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Archive
ID 1119235
Lot 126 | On pears and a lost portrait by a female artist
Estimate value
$ 20 000 – 30 000
On pears and a lost portrait by a female artist

John Adams, 10 November 1809

ADAMS, John (1735-1826). Autograph letter signed ("John Adams") to Rev. William Bentley, Quincy, 10 November 1810.



One page, 227 x 184mm (a few scatted stains, left margin slightly rough remnants of wax seal at left margin, else very bright and clean)



On pear trees and praising a portrait of him made by a female artist: "I believe it is the only portrait of me that ever was made with any appearnce of Wisdom or Dignity…." A charming letter from Adams to the Rev. Bentley of Salem, in which the former president, now happily in his retirement, thanks his friend Bentley for "Sending me the Pears," and offers his thoughts on the quality: "Though they are not So large I rank them in point of flavour between the St. Michaels and the brown Burys," and adds that he has "Several young Endicotts which appear to be happy in my Garden … And if I can guard from Accident I hope they will be an ornament to this Farm and a Comfort to some good Citizens two hundred years hence. I can Scarcely hope that my Posterity will enjoy them So Long; for Lands Seldom continue in the Same Family in this Country for half the Time." Adams proved incorrect in his predictions, on both counts. His home, Peacefield, remained in his family for three generations and on the death of Adams' great grandson Brookes Adams in 1927, the Adams Memorial Society took possession of the house and grounds. However, the Endicott pear trees that Adams mentions here, no longer survive in the historic orchard at Peacefield. However, the original Endicott pear tree, planted by Captain John Endicott, considered to be the oldest living cultivated fruit tree in North America still survives—notwithstanding damage caused by vandals in 1960.



A lost portrait? Adams moves on from pears to the subject of a "you[n]g lady," whom Bentley had introduced to Adams—an artist who, according to Adams, "flattered me with exquisite Art by representing me with the Face and Figure of wise Man, at Quincy. I believe it is the only portrait of me that ever was made with any appearance of Wisdom or Dignity in the Shape Air or Countenance." To date, tracing the name of the artist or the portrait Adams mentions has remained elusive. While Bentley's published journal records his various visits to John Adams's home, they make no mention of a portrait or of the artist (though Bentley himself writes that he had long sought a portrait of Adams). And while one might assume Adams was being merely polite in his praise, he often railed at his depiction by various artists, writing in 1809 that he had "been too much abused by painters ever to sit to any one again," and a decade later, he complained that "Artists have done what they pleased with my face and eyes, head and shoulders, stature and figure and they have made of them monsters as fit for exhibition as Harlequin or Punch." (Adams to Skelton Jones, 11 March 1809; Adams to John B. Binon, 7 February 1819, both cited in Andrew Oliver, Portraits of John and Abigail Adams (1967)). Thus, Adams's praise was likely sincere, and the loss of this portrait is all the more tragic.

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