Willis Seaver Adams

Willis Seaver Adams (1842-1921) Landscape painter who studied under James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Willis Seaver Adams was born near Suffield, CT in 1842. His father was Stephen Lorenzo Adams,also known as Pole Adams; he was a farmer and operated a tavern out of his house located by the Enfield and Suffield covered bridge over the Connecticut River. In Willis' childhood, his father attempted to make him a farmer yet failed due to Willis' dreams to be involved with art and nature. From 1857 to 1862 Adams attended the Connecticut Literary Institute, now known as Suffield Academy sporadically. While at the school Adams filled his books with sketches of animals and the people around him.

Dr. Holmes, a wealthy Springfield doctor, privately funded Adams to study at the Royal Academy in Antwerp in 1868, but Adams was forced to return to Springfield when his sponsor died soon after. Adams lived in Cleveland, Ohio from 1876-1878 and was a member of the Cleveland Art Club and the Cleveland Academy of Fine Arts. He also painted a portrait of then governor Rutherford B. Hayes. Adams then traveled to Europe and became friends with James Whistler in Venice. Eventually, Adams settled in the Connecticut River Valley and devoted his later years to oil miniatures as well as landscapes of Connecticut River Valley scenes. He began a long association with James D. Gill, at whose galleries Adams exhibited often. Adams painting can be located today at Suffield Academy, Kent Memorial Library in Suffield, The Wadsworth Athenaeum, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College.

Kent Memorial Library web page: http://www.suffield-library.org/localhistory/adams.htm