Wilbur G. Adam (July 23, 1898 – March 23, 1973) was an American painter and illustrator who divided his career between Cincinnati and Chicago.

[4] He studied under many famous Cincinnati artists such as Herman Wessel (1878–1969), James Roy Hopkins (1877–1969), Lewis Henry Meakin (1850–1917), Frank Duveneck (1848–1919) and Caroline Lord (1860–1927).

[1] In 1917 he and a group of young artists from the Art Academy of Cincinnati including Bill Bollman, George Fetick, Carl Hasz, Arthur Helwig, John Holmer and Dick Sanders started a communal studio in downtown Cincinnati on the south side of Third Street, between Walnut and Main.

[5] In September 1918, Adam travelled to Stearns, Kentucky with Art Academy of Cincinnati classmate Frank Harmon Myers for a sketching trip.

[1] In 1921 he won second prize in the Chaloner Paris Scholarship competition of the National Academy Museum and School of New York City.

[10][11][12] In the summer of 1927 he travelled to Glacier National Park and was joined for a few weeks by fellow Cincinnati painter, Matthew A.

After returning to Cincinnati, Adam filled his many illustration commissions, and also painted portraits, particularly of institutional and business leaders.

Using bright colors and a realistic technique, Adam's paintings reflected his great skill and experience as an illustrator.

The warm rays of the sun, bursting through the clouds for just a moment, have turned everything to gold, and the cool, purple shadows of the trees and rocks give strong contrast.

Near Estes Village, a smaller landscape that stands out in the group, is a sparkling rendering of sky and rich luminous mountains that have fine feeling of mass and distance.

It is a good likeness, well drawn and painted surely and simply, with no struggle for effect, but depending solely on its fine draftsmanship and firm handling.

As a landscapist, he has analyzed these views....and they are excellent documents...built up with great consideration for mass formation and stand the test of scale.. Mr. Adam…has overstepped the bounds of more conventional landscape with such a showing."

Mr. Adam has joined the increasing band of painters who are finding the grandeurs and beauties of the west and northwest paintable.

Other paintings were The Hill Farm, Turn in the Road, White Peonies, Bronze Plate, The Elevated, The Little Dancer, Harriet Dawes, Clare and Gertrude and Roselle.

Four young Chicago artists: Karl Brandner, Wilbur Adam, Gasper Ruffolo and C. Warner Williams (a sculptor).

"Wilbur Adam is an old-fashioned portraitist, presently in a retrospective exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Club, and his work has the quiet, insistent pride of a man certain of his technique and the grounds to which he applies it, as well he may be.

From 2003 to 2004, Gypsy Girl was on display at the Cincinnati Art Museum as part of its exhibition entitled Exotic and Picturesque People and Places.