The great American photographer, Alfred Stieglitz described J. Craig Annan as: 'A true artist, and a decidedly poetic one at that'. His photogravure of Stirling Castle was executed in this spirit. The gravure print was a process that Annan and his father, Thomas Annan, learned in Vienna from its inventor, Karl Klic in 1883. The Glasgow photographer was proud of his Scottishness and some have read a nationalist statement into this picture. Although the castle looks proud and untouchable up on the crag, it overlooks a farmyard - an element which instantaneously makes this an informal and accessible image.