About this artwork
This striking image is one of the thousands of views of Scotland that the Valentine company in Dundee produced from the mid-1860s onwards. It shows the uninhabited island of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides, a site previously visited by artists and writers like Turner, Keats, Wordsworth and Tennyson. Thanks to photography, its famous basalt columns could now be appreciated by all.
Updated before 2020
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artist:James Valentine (1815 - 1879) Scottish
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title:Staffa. The Clam-Shell Cave
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date created:1870s
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materials:Albumen print
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measurements:19 x 23.2 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Gift of Mrs. Riddell in memory of Peter Fletcher Riddell 1985
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accession number:PGP R 810
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gallery:
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subject:
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James Valentine
James Valentine
The Valentine company was founded in Dundee by James's father, John Valentine, in 1825. After learning the daguerreotype process in Paris in the late 1840s, James added portrait photography to the family business in 1851. By the 1860s the company had begun to cater for the growing tourist industry...
