William Adam

William Constable Adam (29 August 1846 – 17 October 1931) was an English-born oil and watercolour painter of Scottish ancestry who spent the last 33 years of his life in California, United States. Biography Adam was born just south of his paternal Scotland in Tweedmouth on the outskirts of Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1846. After completing grammar school, he began evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. According to the 1861 Census, he resided in Cathcart, now a suburb of Glasgow, with his large family; his occupation was given as "clerk." At the age of 19 he traveled to South America, studied art in Buenos Aires, worked as a broker in Montevideo, and in 1926 published a serialized travelogue of his adventures. On his return to Scotland (early 1870s) he continued his art training under Robert Greenlees and Robert Brydall, and was an early member of the Glasgow Art Club. After travels in north Africa and advanced training in Paris under Auguste Joseph Delécluse, he exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts. Following the death of his wife, Ada Rebecca Robertson (1857-1940), the childless William Adam migrated to the United States in 1893–94, settled in Massachusetts, joined the Boston Art Club, and was co-founder and president of the Lowell Art Club.