The leading architect and interior designer in late-18th-century England and Scotland. In 1754 he went to Rome to study antiquities and draftsmanship, and also undertook a survey in Dalmatia, the results of which he published as The Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalato (1764). Following his return in 1758 Adam set up an office in London, and quickly established himself as a fashionable and innovative Neoclassical designer of country house interiors. By the 1780s, however, his work was confined largely to Scotland, where he designed and built several picturesque castles. Many of his romantic monochrome and tinted watercolors date from this period, a number of which are of dramatically lit fantasy castles set in mountainous landscapes. (Wilton/Lyles 1993, p. 312)