ROBERT ADAMSON, DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL. Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers

ROBERT ADAMSON (1821-1848) • DAVID OCTAVIUS HILL (1802-1870)

Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers

Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers. Artist: David Octavius Hill (British, Perth, Scotland 1802-1870 Edinburgh, Scotland); Robert Adamson (British, St. Andrews, Scotland 1821-1848 St. Andrews, Scotland). Dimensions: 16.1 x 11.9 cm (6 5/16 x 4 11/16 in.). Photography Studio: Hill and Adamson (British, active 1843-1848). Date: ca. 1843. In 1843, four hundred ministers of the Church of Scotland met in Edinburgh to sign the Deed of Demission, resigning their positions and privileges in order to establish the Free Church of Scotland. Inspired by the event, the painter Hill determined to create a large commemorative painting portraying everyone present at the signing. Realizing that the ministers would soon leave Edinburgh to return to their parishes throughout Scotland, Hill sought the aid of a local photographer, Robert Adamson, to create individual photographs of the ministers that could serve later as guides for the portraits in the painting. The dramatically lit and psychologically engaging portraits that this painter-and-photographer team produced far outshone Hill's enormous, tedious painting, in which the accumulation of faces diminished the power of each.

Salted paper print from paper negative

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Album / Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Model: No - Property: No
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3046 x 4094 px | 35.7 MB

25.8 x 34.7 cm | 10.2 x 13.6 in (300 dpi)