Description
Albrecht Adam was born in Nördlingen, then a small free state in southern Germany. Albrecht's talent for painting became apparent at a young age, as in 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 Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts. In July 1807 he moved to Munich, where he learned from the war and battle artist Johann Lorenz Rugendas II and befriended other artists such as Margarethe Geiger and Sophie Reinhard, who later moved with him to Vienna.
In 1809, Austria attacked Napoleon's ally Bavaria, an action that led to a brief and ugly conflict that culminated in Austria's defeat by France and Bavaria at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen. Accompanying the victorious army to Vienna, Adam produced a series of military prints of the conflict, beginning a theme that would dominate his career. It was during his brief residence in Vienna that he met Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, 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.