About this artwork
Painter and illustrator David Octavius Hill engaged photographer Robert Adamson to help him fulfill a monumental commission to commemorate the so-called Disruption of 1843, in which the Free Church of Scotland was formed when a group of ministers seceded from the country’s established church. Hill wished to portray each of the nearly 450 participants at the Disruption Assembly, and found an efficient means of doing so by working from photographs, specifically the recently patented paper negative process, which Adamson had begun practicing professionally earlier that year. Together, Hill and Adamson made around 2,500 images in the short period before Adamson’s illness and death; it then took Hill 20 years to complete the painting. This is one of the few carefully composed group portraits that Hill eventually transferred almost unchanged onto canvas—he painted one man as bald, however, to reflect his later appearance.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Photography and Media
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Artist
- David Octavius Hill
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Title
- Dumbarton Presbytery
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Place
- Scotland (Artist's nationality)
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Date
- Made 1845
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Medium
- Salted paper print
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Inscriptions
- Inscribed recto, on hinged matte, upper right, in graphite: "17"; recto, on hinged matte, along bottom edge, in graphite: "Presbytery of Dumbarton / Alexander of Vettillianof [?] Gordsie [?] ? Rev. Boumer [?] / Schwarz 2.35 Amlocker [?] Cardron [?] Q1060jx"; unmarked verso
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Dimensions
- Image/paper: 14.1 × 19.2 cm (5 9/16 × 7 9/16 in.); Hinged matte: 19.2 × 28.2 cm (7 9/16 × 11 1/8 in.)
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Credit Line
- Photography Associates Fund
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Reference Number
- 2002.548
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/160195/manifest.json
Extended information about this artwork
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
