Albrecht Adam (16 April 1786 – 28 August 1862) was a Bavarian painter, who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte during the 1812 Russian campaign. He was attached as an official artist to the Bavarian contingent in Bonaparte's . Throughout the campaign he sketched, painted and depicted an important record of the campaign to Moscow. In his memoirs he described the carnage of Borodino and late into his career he was still painting battle scenes from the Napoleonic period. He became a well-known equine artist, a legacy continued by his grandson, Emil Adam.
Life and career
Albrecht Adam was born in Nördlingen, then a small free state in southern Germany, to Jeremias Adam and Margaretha Thilo in 1786. His brother Heinrich Adam (1787–1862), also a painter was born the following year. Albrecht's talent for painting became apparent at an early age as by 1800 he was painting French troops as they marched through southern Germany. Initially apprenticed as a confectioner in Nuremberg, in 1803 he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg where he was tutored in drawing by Christoph Zwinger (1764–1813). In July 1807 he moved to Munich where he learnt from the war and battle artist Johann Lorenz Rugendas II (1775–1826). and befriended fellow artists Margarethe Geiger and , who later moved with him to Vienna. In 1809 Austria attacked Napoleon's ally Bavaria, an action that led to a short, unpleasant conflict that culminated in Austrian defeat by France and Bavaria at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen. 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. It was during his brief residency in Vienna, that he met Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, the Viceroy of Italy and Bonaparte's stepson and his wife Princess Augusta of Bavaria. The young artist was asked to join Prince Eugene's household in Milan as a Court painter. His duties included accompanying Eugene and his staff on military campaigns across Europe. He 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. As the progressed across Europe and into Russia Adam wrote, sketched and painted. He was present at all the major actions and witnessed the triumphant march into the smouldering ruins of Moscow. There seems little doubt that Adam was depressed, by what he had witnessed. After the key Battle of Borodino he described his feelings on visiting the battlefield.... The scene was one that filled me with horror. I felt paralysed and, only by calling to mind the countless other horrors I had been witness to in this frightful campaign, could I shake myself from my stupor ....
In 1859 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. Returning to Munich he painted the Battle of Landshut 1809 (1859) and the Battle of Zorndorf 1758 (1860) for Maximilian II of Bavaria. He remained a significant military painter, often assisted by his sons, until his death in Munich on 16 August 1862.
Illustrations of works
<gallery>
File:Albrecht soldiers resting.jpg|Soldiers Resting in a Village, A Cavalry Officer Holding an Austrian Banner, oil on canvas
File:Crossing the Dniepr - Albrecht Adam.png|One of Adam's depictions of the French invasion of Russia, showing the crossing of the Dnieper in September 1812
File:Eugene Beauharnais Crossing Niemen 1812.jpg| Lithograph depicting Prince Eugene of Beauharnis crossing the river Neman 1812
File:Battle of Ostrovno 1812.PNG| Battle of Ostrovno fought during the Russian Campaign 1812.
File:Battle of Smolensk on 18 August 1812.jpg| Battle of Smolensk on 18 August 1812
File:Horses at the Porch.jpg|Horses at the Porch 1843
File:Albrecht Adam - Schlacht bei Novara.jpg|Die Schlacht bei Novarra (The Battle of Novarra), 1858, by Albrecht Adam.
File:Grab-Albrecht-Adam-mit-Soehnen-Alter-Suedl-Friedhof-Muenchen-GF-27-1-25-26.jpg| Tomb of Albrecht Adam at the Old Southern Cemetery in Munich
File:Napoleon in burning Moscow - Adam Albrecht (1841).jpg|Napoleon in Burning Moscow, depicting Napoleon observing the Fire of Moscow, painted in 1841
</gallery>
See also
- List of German painters