 He was the fourth child of Jaan and Anna Adamson.Adamson attended schools in his native Estonia before relocating to Berlin to study at the .After studying in Berlin, Adamson then moved to Paris and studied with such artists as Charles Guérin, Roger Bissière, Moise Kisling, and André Lhote before entering the private academy of Russian artist in 1925 and concentrating in the media of art deco and Neue Sachlichkeit.