Burd Alane
About this artwork
After the death of Robert Adamson, Hill abandoned photography and returned to painting. However around 1860 he entered a partnership with the photographer, Alexander MacGlashan, which may have lasted no more than a few days. Hill persuaded MacGlashan to work in the Rock House garden on Calton Hill, where this picture was taken. Burd Alane means 'only child'. Hill was particularly sensitive to this notion because he was a widower with an only daughter, Charlotte. She died giving birth to her only son in 1862.
Updated before 2020
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artists:
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title:Burd Alane
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date created:About 1860
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materials:Albumen print
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measurements:27.10 x 21.20 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Edinburgh Photographic Society Collection, gifted 1987
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accession number:PGP EPS 96
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gallery:
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subject:
David Octavius Hill
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 Secretary of...