View of a lake or river with a sailboat

View of a lake or river with a sailboat by David Octavius Hill

Medium

Pen and black ink, brush and wash, over graphite

Dimensions

sheet: 2 7/8 x 4 3/4 in. (7.3 x 12 cm)

Classification

Drawings

Department

Drawings and Prints

Museum

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Credit

Gift of Walter Schatzki, 1959

Accession Number

59.532.2

Tags

LakesBoatsLandscapes

Art Historical Context

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870), a pioneering Scottish artist best known for his early photographic portraits in collaboration with Robert Adamson began his career as a painter and draftsman. This intimate drawing, *View of a lake or with a sailboat*, a serene 19th-century landscape, sketched during one of Hill's travels or plein air studies between 1820 and 1870. The composition features a tranquil body of water dominated by a lone sailboat, evoking Romantic fascination with nature's quiet majesty amid Scotland's rugged scenery. Executed on a modest sheet (2 7/8 x 4 3/4 in.), the work employ...

About the Artist

David Octavius Hill · 18021870

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 ...

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