Victor Adam was born in Paris in 1801, son to the engraver Jean Adam. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1814-18, and again in the ateliers of Meynier and Regnault. He was employed by the Museum of Versailles after his succesful exhibition Hermina Succouring Tancred in 1819.

He continued to paint for the Museum of Versailles until 1838 when he decided to disappear from public view. In 1846 Victor Adam had reemerged into the public eye by exhibiting a number of lithogrpahs, a medium he had practiced until his death at Viroflay in 1866.