Albrecht Adam was born in Nördlingen, then a small free state in southern Germany, to Jeremias Adam and Margaretha Thilo in 1786. His brother Heinrich Adam (1787–1862), also a painter was born the following year. Albrecht's talent for painting became apparent at an early age as by 1800 he was painting French troops as they marched through southern Germany. Initially apprenticed as a confectioner in Nuremberg, in 1803 he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg where he was tutored in drawing by Christoph Zwinger (1764–1813). In July 1807 he moved to Munich where he learnt from the war and battle artist Johann Lorenz Rugendas II (1775–1826). and befriended fellow artists Margarethe Geiger and Sophie Reinhard, who later moved with him to Vienna. In 1809 Austria attacked Napoleon's ally Bavaria, an action that led to a short, unpleasant conflict that culminated in Austrian defeat by France and Bavaria at the Battle of Teugen-Hausen. Adam who accompanied the victorious army to Vienna produced a series of military impressions of the conflict, beginning a theme that would dominate his career. It was during his brief residency in Vienna, that he met Prince Eugene de Beauharnais, the Viceroy of Italy and Bonaparte's stepson and his wife Princess Augusta of Bavaria. The young artist was asked to join Prince Eugene's household in Milan as a Court painter. His duties included accompanying Eugene and his staff on military campaigns across Europe.