The Oldest Presidential Portrait

On the 5th of October 2017 Sotheby’s New York will be hosting it’s anticipated Photographs auction. Prints from some of the most important figures in photographic history will be available, including ‘New Orleans’ (Trolley) by Robert Frank and Nymphea by Eugene Atget, but perhaps one of the most fascinating lots on offer comes from one of the lesser known photographers of the 19th century: Philip Haas.

Sotheby’s explains the fascinating story behind The Oldest Presidential Portrait:

‘When he posed for this portrait, John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) had completed his term as the sixth American president (1825–29) but was still serving his country as a congressman from Massachusetts. An indefatigable diarist, Adams documented the sitting in entries for 8 and 16 March 1843, when he twice visited the Washington, DC studio of Philip Haas. This recently rediscovered plate – the only one currently known to have survived from the Haas sessions – is believed to be the earliest photograph of an American president to come to market in many years and the earliest extant photograph of the man himself. An invaluable document, this daguerreotype crystallises a remarkable moment in the history of photography and American politics.

One of the earliest American daguerreotypes to come to market, this portrait was realised by Philip Haas, who may have learned the process in Paris in 1839, the year it was invented. A unique detailed image fixed upon highly polished silver-plated copper, the daguerreotype was the first widely available photographic process and immensely popular throughout the 1840s and 1850s.

Not only was Adams the sixth US president and son of the second president, but he also was a Massachusetts senator, congressman and diplomat. Adams knew about governing – and it shows in his commanding facial expression.

The lamp, chair, books and other props pictured here are believed to be the backdrop of the Haas’s Washington studio, which was located on Pennsylvania Avenue. Although Haas was both an accomplished daguerreotypist and lithographer, few of his skilled portraits are known today. 

Adams writes in his diary about visiting “Mr. Haas’s shop” twice, including on a chilly 16 March day when his “hands in woolen lined gloves bitterly pinched with cold.” Adams also describes the wondrousness of the technique: “The operation is performed in half a minute; but is yet altogether incomprehensible to me.”

This daguerreotype comes directly from the descendants of Horace Everett (1779–1851), a colleague of Adams who served in the House of Representatives as a congressman from Vermont from 1829 to 1843. He was present at Adams’s second sitting with Haas and received this photograph as an inscribed gift from Adams.’

The John Quincy Adams portrait has an estimate of $150,000-$250,000. You can register your interest in this auction here.