Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller

Wertmüller was commissioned by Gustav III of Sweden for a portrait of Marie Antoinette, which is now in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. In 1787, he produced his masterpiece Danaë, a work which proved controversial as one of the earliest female nude paintings exhibited in America. Wertmüller first emigrated to the United States in May 1794 and continued his portrait work, most notably of General George Washington, but in 1796 was called back to Sweden, eventually returning to Philadelphia in 1800. Johnston, in her book Original Portraits of Washington (Boston, 1882), speaks of five portraits of Washington by Wertmüller, of which one, executed in 1797, was purchased by the U. S. government in 1878, and another is owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Wertmüller was married to Elizabeth Henderson, granddaughter of noted early American painter Gustavus Hesselius, on January 8, 1801, and two years later retired to a plantation in Claymont, Delaware, where he lived the final years of his life. He died near Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, aged 60.

Training under Joseph-Marie Vien, Pierre Hubert L'Archevêque and Lorens Pasch the Younger is recorded. The recorded working language is Swedish. The field of work recorded is painting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Places of work recorded in the authority are France, Spain and United States. Positions recorded include court painter. Works named in the authority record are Jean-Jaques Bachelier 1724-1806, Queen Marie Antoinette of France and two of her Children Walking in The Park of Trianon and Cupid as Bacchus. Work by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller is recorded in the collections of Museo del Prado, Finnish National Gallery, Nationalmuseum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Musée de l'Histoire de France.

His article in Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography says (regarding his portraits of Washington): "Though the work of an excellent artist, they are hardly successful as portraits, for Wertmüller belonged to that ideal French school, which usually sacrificed truth to nature for elegance in execution." It later continues: "He was noted especially for his vivid coloring, 'Danae' being a good example of his powers in that respect."