Robert Adam

1728 (Kirkcaldy, Scotland) – 1792 (London)

While not a complete architectural original, Adam had a great influence not only on British neoclassicism, but from Russia to the U.S. Dominant in his brothers’ partnership, he was a member of Smith’s weekly dining club in Edinburgh, travelled in Italy with Ramsay, befriended and learned from Piranesi, designed his friend Hume’s tomb, and commissioned Kauffman and her husband to paint decorative features. Walpole and Garrick commissioned work from him, while he himself hired the young stonemason Telford. Boulton proudly told him how he was training up “plain country lads” instead of employing established (but awkward) craftsmen.