Benno Adam

Benno Adam was born in Munich in 1812 into what was becoming a dynasty of painters. His father Albrecht Adam had made his name on the battlefields of the Napoleonic wars, his brothers Franz and Eugen painted too, and his own son Emil would carry the trade into a third generation.

Benno found his own corner of it in animals. He specialised in game and hunting scenes, deer and boar, hounds and household pets, arranged in large careful compositions for a public that liked its wildlife handsome and its dogs noble. He worked around Munich and spent time among the artists gathered at Lake Chiemsee, in the Bavarian foothills.

He was practical about the skill as well. In 1851 he supplied the illustrations for a manual on cattle breeding, painting prize bulls with the same steady attention he gave to a stag at bay. He died at Kelheim, on the Danube, in 1892.