David Octavius Hill
David Octavius Hill at the Gate of Rock House

ArtistScottish, 1821–1848
CultureScottish
Titles
  • David Octavius Hill at the Gate of Rock House
Date1843
MediumSalted paper print from paper negative
DimensionsImage: 7 15/16 × 6 3/16 in. (20.2 × 15.7 cm)
Sheet: 8 7/16 × 6 7/16 in. (21.4 × 16.4 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2004.500
Current Location
The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building
Gallery 208
Exposé

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

In four and a half years and through nearly 3,000 images, the Scottish team of Hill and Adamson created the earliest substantial body of self-consciously artistic work in the new medium. Hill was a locally prominent painter in Edinburgh with a keen sense of composition and an affable manner that put his sitters at ease. Adamson, 20 years his junior, brought to the partnership an extraordinary mastery of the negative-positive photographic process invented just a few years earlier by William Henry Fox Talbot. Hill, handsome and naturally relaxed in front of the camera, here stands at the entrance to Adamson’s studio, Rock House.


ProvenanceChristie's, London, October 20, 1993; Robert Hershkowitz Ltd, London.

Bought by Manfred Heiting from Robert Hershkowitz Limited on 12/9/1989.
Exhibition History"Self, Model, and Self as Other," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,13 July – 29 September, 2013.

“A History of Photography II: Selections from the Museum's Collection,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 17–July 19, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Marked in pencil, verso, lower left corner of image: "7"
Marked in white, recto of image, bottom: "D O Hill [indecipherable]"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Bonaly Towers (Group includes John Henning, Mrs. Cockborn, Lord Cockborn, Mrs. Cleghorn and D.O. Hill)
David Octavius Hill
c. 1846
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.498
David Octavius Hill, R.S.A.
David Octavius Hill
1843–1847, printed 1909
Photogravure
2004.484
Greyfriars' Churchyard, Mylne's Monument
David Octavius Hill
c. 1846
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.497
Summer Afternoon, Master John Hope Finlay
David Octavius Hill
c. 1845
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.517
Miss Matilda Rigby
David Octavius Hill
1843
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.489
John Ban MacKenzie (1796–1864), Piper to the Marquis of Breadalbane and the Highland Society
David Octavius Hill
1844
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.496
Miss Jane Binney (Later Mrs. James Webster)
David Octavius Hill
1843
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.505
Mrs. Elizabeth Rigby (Later Lady Eastlake)
David Octavius Hill
1844–1845
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.504
Finlay of Colosay (Deerstalker in the employ of Campbell of Islay)
David Octavius Hill
1843–1844
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.499
The Porthole (Seargeant and Private of the 42nd Gordon Highlanders, Edinburg Castle)
David Octavius Hill
1846
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.508
The Letter (Marion Finlay, Mrs Margaret (Dryburgh) Lyall and Mrs. Grace (Finlay) Ramsay)
David Octavius Hill
1843–1847
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.495
Jeanie Wilson and Annie Linton, Newhaven
David Octavius Hill
c. 1843
Salted paper print from paper negative
2004.506