Albrecht Adam

Albrecht Adam was a battle painter who saw his subjects first hand. His pictures of cavalry, officers and campaigns are full of horses, uniforms and wide landscapes, painted with the accuracy of someone who sketched them on the spot.

Born in Nördlingen in Bavaria, he trained in Nuremberg and Munich. In 1812 he went with Prince Eugène de Beauharnais on Napoleon’s Russian campaign as an official artist, and his sketches from that march became the basis for much of his later work, including a large series of lithographs. He then served as court painter to the Bavarian kings Maximilian I Joseph and Ludwig I, painting the Battle of Borodino for the Munich Residenz.

The Hermitage in Saint Petersburg holds a group of his Russian campaign scenes. Look at his horses, which he painted with real anatomical knowledge.