One of the Adams Children

Unidentified · ca. 1820

A little girl sits in an imaginary wooded setting with mountains off in the distance. The artist painted red flowers to match the red bows on her dress and in her hair. The flower from which she picks the petals that fall to the ground may have symbolized the child’s death, but it is unclear if this was created as a memorial portrait. (Fink, “Children as Innocence from Cole to Cassatt,” Nineteenth Century, Winter 1977)