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Patrick William Adam was a Scottish painter, best known for his genre and interior paintings. He was born in Edinburgh to a well-known lawyer on October 12, 1854, and would study art from a young age. He attended the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) and worked under artists such as William McTaggert and George Paul Chalmers. He became prolific quickly; his first exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy was when he was just eighteen, and he showed well over 100 paintings. Over the course of his life, he would work in watercolor and pastel but largely favored oil. In 1877 he won the Stuart Prize for Life Drawing, and twenty years later would be elected to the RSA. After traveling to Italy and Russia, he would ultimately settle in North Berwick in 1908, where he developed his signature style of interior paintings. In 1912 he was one of the founders of the Society of the Eight, a group of artists and friends who exhibited in Edinburgh and wished to differentiate Edinburgh art from that of Glasgow, the other main producer of Scottish art. Patrick William Adam’s works overall were bright and expressive, often using floral motifs or exploring the effect of light and shadow upon a room. Though some of his paintings explore themes of war and political tension, it is the quiet depictions of parlors and other still lifes that hold his legacy. He died at home in 1929.