Hill, David Octavius & Adamson, Robert

An Edinburgh Fish Woman

Edinburgh, circa 1845
Toned salted paper print, from a calotype paper negative, inscribed in pencil verso ‘An Edinburgh Fish Woman’

Printed from a larger negative known as ‘Mrs Logan and two unknown women’.
The photograph was originally used as a study for Hill’s painting of ‘Edinburgh from the Castle, 1847’. This single standing figure appears on the right edge of the composition and lends itself to being presented separately. The light fading to the left edge would indicate that this photograph has always appeared as such and was printed as a single figure in the very first instance.
Stevenson, Sarah: David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, catalogue of their calotypes taken between 1843 and 1847 in the collection of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Nat galleries of Scotland, 1981, illus. pp 198, Newhaven 35.
Ford, Colin: An early Victorian album; the photographic masterpieces of D. O. Hill and R. Adamson, Knopf 1976 illus. pp 162 (full size)

150 x 100 mm

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