Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams

After his withdrawal from Senate politics in 1808, John Quincy Adams was appointed minister to St. Petersburg, Russia, by James Madison. Shortly before leaving for St. Petersburg in 1809, Adams noted "We all dined at Mr. Gray's. . . . After dinner I went to the Miniature Painter Williams's for my wife's pictures, and had two profile shades taken of myself." Henry Williams, who probably cut these profiles in Boston, was one of the many profilists who concentrated on taking likenesses of New England sitters.