Biography

Adolph was born in Nikolsburg, Austria, and studied at the Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Vienna. He visited Paris in 1745, and by 1750 he was working in London, where he had a successful career painting life-size portraits of distinguished aristocratic families. Adolph’s technique and style developed during his period in Britain. His later portraits are less stiff, and display a more accomplished understanding of elegant gesture. Adolph’s most famous portrait was of the Prince of Wales on Horseback (the future King George III). In 1755, it was engraved and published by Bernard Baron. By 1769, Adolph had returned to Austria, where he continued to enjoy the patronage of the wealthy and the eminent, including the Archbishops of Ölmuz at Kremsier.