Albrecht Adam

Albrecht Adam first studied at the academy of arts in Nuremberg, then he went to Munich in 1807 and the following year to the academy of arts in Vienna. In 1809 he made sketches of the battles of Aspern and Wagram and became court painter to Eugène de Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy and stepson of Napoleon, whom he accompanied on the Russian campaign of the Grande Armée in 1812. During the campaign Adam made sketches for him, which he executed as paintings and prints – around 85 pictures with military and battle scenes date from this period. After his return to Munich, Adam continued to paint battle scenes, including the “Battle of Borodino” and the “Battle of the Moskva” for the Bavarian kings Maximilian I and Ludwig I in 1835.
At the same time Adam specialised in portraits of his noble clients on their favourite horses and their horses themselves; in 1829 he painted portraits of the Arabian stallions of the King of Württemberg, in 1833 he worked at the Augustenburg stud farm on Alsen, and painted the Arabian stallions of Crown Prince Maximilian II, which he had brought with him from Greece. In Munich, Adam set up a ground-level studio on his estate, the so-called “Adamei”, in 1824, where the horses could be led. The exact reproduction of their anatomy, in order to emphasise the advantages of the respective breed, is the focus of these horse portraits, with which Adam rises to become the most important horse painter of his time. After 1848 Adam entered the service of Marshal Radetzky and the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, of whom he produced several portraits.