Luise Eisner, spätere Fürstin Odescalchi

John Quincy Adams, an Austrian painter, was born on December 23, 1873, in Vienna, into a family with artistic and international ties. His father, Carl Adams, was a celebrated Heldentenor at the Vienna Court Opera, originally from Boston, USA, and his mother, Nina Bleyer, hailed from Pest. Named after a distant relative, the sixth U.S. President John Quincy Adams, he grew up in a culturally rich environment, spending his youth from 1878 to 1884 in the United States before returning to Vienna. Adams pursued his artistic education under notable figures such as Robert Scheffer, Siegmund L’Allemand, and August Eisenmenger at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, further honing his skills in Munich and Paris, and was profoundly influenced by James McNeill Whistler during his time in London. Adams's career was marked by significant achievements, including his membership in the Vienna Künstlerhaus from 1903 and accolades such as the Kleine Goldene Staatsmedaille in 1904 and the Große Goldene Staatsmedaille in 1906 for his poignant work 'Wir müssen durch viele Trübsale in das Reich Gottes gehen'. His service in the k.u.k. Kriegspressequartier during World War I led to the creation of works now housed in the Vienna Military History Museum. Adams found solace in the picturesque town of Sankt Gilgen during summers, where he owned a prefabricated wooden house from Sweden, later passed on to Alfred Gerstenbrand. His legacy as a painter is intertwined with his exploration of human emotion and the landscapes of his travels, leaving a lasting imprint on Austrian art until his death on March 15, 1933, in Vienna.