The Misses Grierson
c. 1845
Medium
Salted paper print
Dimensions
19.9 × 14 cm (7 7/8 × 5 9/16 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
223183
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson were among the earliest practitioners of photography to be considered true artists, both by contemporary critics and by later photographers and historians. A painter and illustrator, Hill partnered with Adamson, who had begun working with the calotype process (paper negatives and salted paper prints) only a few years after its announcement to the public. Together they produced more than 1,500 portraits over the course of just five years. The calotype proces...
About the Artist
David Octavius Hill · 1802–1870
David Octavius Hill (1802–1870) was a Scottish painter, photographer, and arts administrator whose pioneering photography partnership with Robert Adamson from 1843 to 1847 transformed the medium into an art form. Born in Perth and trained in Edinburgh, Hill established himself as a landscape painter and became secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy, a position he held for nearly forty years. His ...