Patrick William Adam was born in Edinburgh in 1854 and studied at Edinburgh Academy and then in London before returning to Edinburgh to complete his formal studies at the RSA schools. He studied under George Paul Chalmers and William McTaggart, before embarking on a career as a portraitist and painter of interiors, the work for which he became most famous. He was awarded the Maclaine-Watters medal for best painting from life. In 1872 , aged 18, he first exhibited at the RSA where he went on to exhibited 164 pictures.
He travelled abroad extensively and worked in Rome, Venice and Russia. He painted a notable series of views of Venice during his visit there in 1894 and later composed a group of winter landscapes. Usually he worked in oil or pastel, though also occasionally in watercolour.
He settled in North Berwick in 1908 and spent the rest of his life there recording the interiors of local society households. Elected RSA 1897, his watercolours have a delicacy not found in his other works, reflecting his studies under Chalmers and McTaggart.
Exhibited 12 works at the RA between 1878 and 1896, also RSA, GI (42) & AAS 1886-1926.
Represented in NGS, Aberdeen AG, Dundee AG, Paisley AG, City of Edinburgh Collection, Bradford AG, Leeds AG.
Biography: The Dictionary of Scottish Art & Architecture - Peter J M McEwan.
