Shown from the chest up, a light-skinned man sits angled to our right and looking off in that direction against a golden brown background in this vertical portrait painting. The man has a high forehead under a receding hairline of gray-brushed light brown hair. His right eyebrow, to our left, is slightly cocked over hazel-brown eyes. His short nose is pointed and his pink lips closed over a set jaw. Snow-white folds of his cravat tuck into his high-collared ink-black coat. The rounded lower edge of the portrait fades against the background.
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John Quincy Adams

Thomas Sully (American, born England, 1783 - 1872)

1824

Medium
oil on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 61 x 51 cm (24 x 20 1/16 in.) ; framed: 80 x 69.9 x 5.4 cm (31 1/2 x 27 1/2 x 2 1/8 in.)
Culture
American
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CAB
Credit line
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art