Portrait of Mary Adeline Williams

During his lifetime, Thomas Eakins painted more than 200 portraits, only 25 of which were commissioned. Mary Adeline Williams was a personal friend of the artist; Eakins first met her when she was a childhood playmate of his sister. Later, as an unmarried woman, Williams, who was known as Addie, lived with Eakins and his wife, Susan. Although Eakins’s portrait presents Addie as straight-laced and severe, this is in marked contrast with the active woman Susan Eakins described in her diary as riding bicycles, going to art exhibitions, and socializing between sittings for the painting.