A capriccio Landscape, with travellers in the foreground

Although known as an exponent of neoclassicism, Adam also maintained an enthusiasm throughout his life for romantic landscape drawing. The drawings that he produced were essentially for his own enjoyment. The author of his obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1792, commented that in his landscape drawings Adam captured 'a luxuriance of composition and an effect of light and shadow which have scarcely ever been equalled'.
The largest group of these rather personal drawings have remained in the Adam family and are now at Blair Adam, near Kinross, Tayside (the Adam family estate).