Adam II Julius

 1852 Julius Adam II (or Katzen-Adam), German artist who died in 1913. — {He specialized in ... cats, mostly kittens}— Julius Adam, II was born in Munich, into a long line of painters, including his father, the painter and lithographer Julius Adam [1826–1874] and his uncle, the painter Albrecht Adam [16 Apr 1786 – 28 Aug 1862]. His first artistic experience came under the teaching of his father. His first job, for his father's company, was as a retoucher of photographic images. The young Julius Adam II worked for his fathers company in South America, Rio de Janeiro, for nearly six years, from 1866 to 1872. In 1872, upon returning to Germany, he enrolled himself to paint and study under the professors Echter and W. Diez. This was his first formal training in art. He would later study under Wilhelm for more than six years, honing his reputation as a painter of cats. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, along with Henriette Ronner [1821-1909], queen of cat painters, two male painters of cats surfaced as the leaders: Julius Adam II and Eugene Lambert [1824-1902]. Adam was of a younger generation of the famous family of Munich animal painters; his older relatives such as Albrecht Adam had been successful horse painters along traditional lines, and it was perhaps a sign of the times that he should now forsake horses for the domestic cat.

Cat painting was the art of the new urban society, as cats lived a pampered life in apartments and town-houses; horse painting harked back to the more rural days. A self-portrait of Julius Adam shows him working at his easel while a family of kittens climb over him.