Abigail Smith Adams

An English-born artist, Sharples established a career in America by asking national figures to sit for profile portraits in pastel. Only occasionally did he produce “full-face” images, as in the frank depiction of Abigail Smith Adams made one year before the presidential election of John Adams. The painting of the future First Lady—often referred to as “Mrs. President” due to her political engagement—reveals her famous shrewdness. An early advocate for women’s rights, she advised her spouse during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to “remember the ladies . . . do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.”