Adolf-Ulrik Wertmuller

Early Days:

Adolf Ulrik Wertmuller (February 18, 1751 - October 5, 1811) was a Swedish painter whose outstanding works include Danaë receiving Jupiter in a Shower of Gold.  Adolf  was born in Stockholm and studied art at home earlier than moving to Paris in 1772 to study under his cousin Alexander Roslin and French painter Joseph-Marie Vien.  On July 30, 1784, Wertmüller was elected to the Royal arts school of Painting and monument.

Career:

Wertmuller first emigrated to the United States in May 1794 and nonstop his photograph work, most notably of General George Washington, but in 1796 was he called back to Sweden, finally returning to Philadelphia in 1800. Elizabeth B. Johnston, in her book new Portraits of Washington, speaks of five portraits of Washington by Wertmuller, of which one, execute in 1797, was purchased by the U. S. government in 1878, and another is owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Wertmuller was married to Elizabeth Henderson, granddaughter of renowned 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 living of his life. He died close to the place Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania