Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquis of Northampton, 1790 - 1851. President of the Royal Society [c]
![Robert Adamson, Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquis of Northampton, 1790 - 1851. President of the Royal Society [c]](https://www.nationalgalleries.org/sites/default/files/styles/postcard/public/externals/109426.jpg?itok=mK96-GXL)
About this artwork
Lord Northampton was a man of importance in science and art, serving as president of the Royal Society and as a trustee of the British Museum. Adamson and Hill photographed at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in York. Hill wrote of the photograph that they had made a ‘singularly Rembrandtish & very fine study’.
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title:Spencer Compton, 2nd Marquis of Northampton, 1790 - 1851. President of the Royal Society [c]
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accession number:PGP HA 1743
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artists:
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gallery:
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object type:
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subject:
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materials:Calotype negative
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date created:1843 - 1847
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measurements:21.40 x 15.70 cm
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credit line:Elliot Collection, bequeathed 1950
Robert Adamson
David Octavius Hill
Robert Adamson
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…
David Octavius Hill
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…
