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.
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title:Burd Alane
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accession number:PGP EPS 96
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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:Albumen print
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date created:About 1860
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measurements:27.10 x 21.20 cm
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credit line:Edinburgh Photographic Society Collection, gifted 1987
David Octavius Hill
Alexander McGlashon
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…
Alexander McGlashon
Alexander MacGlashan began life as a printer, taking up photography in the 1850s. David Octavius Hill worked with him briefly around 1860. Their partnership was short-lived because their styles of work did not match well. MacGlashan was a studio photographer, who tended to clutter his portraits with furniture and other…
