19 Facts About Albrecht Adam

Albrecht Adam was a Bavarian painter, who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte during the 1812 Russian campaign.

Albrecht Adam was attached as an official artist to the Bavarian contingent in Bonaparte's.

Albrecht Adam became a well-known equine artist, a legacy continued by his grandson, Emil Adam.

Albrecht Adam was born in Nordlingen, then a small free state in southern Germany, to Jeremias Adam and Margaretha Thilo in 1786.

Albrecht Adam's brother Heinrich Adam, a painter was born the following year.

Albrecht Adam who accompanied the victorious army to Vienna produced a series of military impressions of the conflict, beginning a theme that would dominate his career.

Albrecht Adam's duties included accompanying Eugene and his staff on military campaigns across Europe.

In 1812 Albrecht Adam accompanied Prince Eugene as an artist on the expedition to Russia.

Albrecht Adam was given a military officer's rank and attached to Eugene's Topographical Bureau, a small unit of engineers, cartographers and draughtsmen which had been established in 1801.

Albrecht Adam travelled with IV Corps, composed mainly of Italian troops, on the long difficult journey to Moscow.

Albrecht Adam returned early from Moscow arriving in Munich in December 1812 thus missing the painful decimation of the as it retreated from Moscow.

Albrecht Adam remained on Prince Eugene's staff for a further three years during which time Adam produced seventy-seven colour plates depicting the aftermath of the conflict.

In 1815, with the Napoleonic wars drawing to a close, Albrecht Adam relocated permanently to Munich, where he was court painter to Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, a position that allowed him to complete commissions for many prominent families in Bavaria and Austria.

Albrecht Adam's studio became a centre for aspiring artists not least his three painter sons: Benno, Eugen and Franz.

In 1824, his former employer Prince Eugene died and Albrecht Adam began collating the images of the Russian Campaign gathering them together under the title Voyage pittoresque et militaire.

Albrecht Adam painted, for Maximilian von Leuchtenberg, twelve battle scenes to hang in his palace in St Petersburg.

Albrecht Adam painted a series of commissioned paintings that depicted the events including a rather flattering canvass showing Radetsky on a white horse with his general staff before the fall of Milan.

In 1859 Albrecht Adam followed the army of Napoleon III of France during the Italian campaign against Austria recording the action in a series of drawings and sketches.

Albrecht Adam remained a significant military painter, often assisted by his sons, until his death in Munich on 16 August 1862.