Loans from the Collection
When you visit the National Galleries of Scotland, you might notice that an object is on loan and not out on display. The organisation is often asked to lend its artworks, most frequently to temporary exhibitions in other museums and galleries, but also occasionally for study purposes. We consider ourselves generous lenders and are proud of having a collection that is in demand around the world. In 2005 and 2006, the National Galleries of Scotland sent out approximately 470 objects per year. This figure does not include movements within the galleries for temporary displays and exhibitions.
Robert Adamson, David Octavius Hill
Ivy-covered tree at Colinton. 'The Fairy Tree'1843 - 1846Early photographic chemicals responded at different speeds to different colours; they were slow to react to the green of trees and grass. This may explain why, Hill, who was an experienced landscape painter, only took a few landscape calotypes. This tree could just be a dead branch with a few tendrils of ivy. The background is made up of spots of unreadable light, which could be the shimmer of leaves or water. It is impossible to tell whether this tree is real or not by looking at the photograph.
Glossary [1] Show
Calotype
The first effective version of photography, using drawing or writing paper for both the negative and the positive. The paper was sensitised with potassium iodide and silver nitrate, exposed and developed in gallic acid and silver nitrate.
- Accession no. PGP HA 426
- Medium Calotype print
- Size 22.50 x 16.60 cm
- Credit Provenance unknown
Robert Adamson (Scottish, 1821 - 1848)
Robert Adamson was one of the first professional photographers, setting up in business in Edinburgh in March 1843. He had aspired to be an engineer but his health was too poor. His brother, John, who was involved in the early experiments with photography in St Andrews taught him the calotype process. Shortly after opening his studio on Calton Hill, Robert met the painter, David Octavius Hill. They worked together for a few weeks on studies for a grand painting of the Free Church of Scotland, before entering into partnership to explore the possibilities of photography. Despite Adamson's early death, the two produced some of the most impressive works taken in the medium and greatly influenced later practice in the art.
David Octavius Hill (Scottish, 1802 - 1870)
A painter and a lithographer by training, David Octavius Hill is best remembered for the beauty of the calotypes he and Robert Adamson produced together. Hill was a sociable and kind-hearted man who did much to support the arts in Scotland and between 1830 and 1836 he was the unpaid Secretary of the newly established Royal Scottish Academy. After Adamson's death, Hill's attempt to start a new partnership with the photographer Alexander MacGlashan around 1860 failed. Hill is to this day revered as one of the first in the trade who transformed photography into an art form.
Glossary [4] Show
Calotype
The first effective version of photography, using drawing or writing paper for both the negative and the positive. The paper was sensitised with potassium iodide and silver nitrate, exposed and developed in gallic acid and silver nitrate.
Lithograph
A printmaking technique using a stone or zinc plate to which the image is applied with a greasy material. After wetting the plate, greasy ink is applied. The ink sticks only to the drawn image and not the wet surface, thus creating a reproduction when applied to paper.
Medium/ media
The material from which an artwork is made, e.g. oil paint, bronze, paper. 'Medium' is also used for the liquid element of paint in which a colouring agent is carried. 'Mixed media' is used when an artist combines several different materials in an artwork.
Royal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) was formed in Edinburgh in 1826 by Scottish artists who felt alienated by what they perceived as the elitism of the Royal Institution and its management of contemporary art exhibitions. In 1835, the RSA secured exhibition rights in the Royal Institution building, which had been erected on The Mound by the Board of Manufactures in 1826. The RSA and the Board frequently argued over responsibilities for advanced art education. From 1859, the RSA shared the premises of the new National Gallery of Scotland under the Board’s custody. In 1910, after transferring most of its art collections to the Gallery, the RSA gained exclusive tenancy of the former Royal Institution building, where it continues to hold large-scale annual exhibitions.