Willis Seaver Adams
(1844-1921)

Born in Suffield, Connecticut, painter Willis Seaver Adams is known mainly for his landscapes of the Connecticut River Valley. Adams studied in Antwerp, Belgium, and lived for a time in Cleveland, Ohio. He later opened a studio in Venice, Italy, and became friends with American painter James McNeil Whistler (1834-1903). In 1906 Adams moved to Greenfield, Massachusetts, where he had converted a barn into a studio. He lived there with his dog, Collie. The same year Adams moved to Greenfield, his works were included in an exhibit in neighboring Deerfield, Massachusetts, and were praised in Greenfield's "Gazette and Courier" as being "conspicuous by their merit."