HF The History of Photography 600pág

166 The early years of photography
At the age of nineteen Hill moved to Edinburgh to study under the landscape
painter Andrew Wilson. The following year he exhibited three landscapes, and
thereafter picturesque Scottish, English, and Irish scenery formed the ever-recurring
theme of his paintings, revealing his love of wild scenery with ancient castles, rugged
mountains, romantic glens, gnarled trees, poetic sunsets over rivers, and waterfalls.
Such subjects greatly appealed to contemporary taste, nurtured on the poems of
Byron and the novels of Sir Walter Scott, and Hill was obviously absorbed by the
Romantic Movement. In the late 18 30s he illustrated an edition of the works of the
'Ettrick Shepherd' Qames Hogg) for the Glasgow publisher Blackie, which was followed
in 1 840 by The Land of Burns, in which sixty-one out of the eighty-one steel
engravings were copied from landscapes specially painted by Hill of scenes associated
with the life and works of Robert Burns.
During his lifetime Hill exhibited no fewer than 291 paintings and sketches at the
Royal Scottish Academy (of which he was a founder-member, and secretary from
18 30 to 1869) and at the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland
; in addition, four pictures were hung at the Royal Academy in London.
Hill was a successful and respected artist in his day, but the few paintings by him
Pl 69 which have survived-though quite charming-would hardly rescue him from oblivion.
It is his photographic portraits which have made Hill's name famous all over
the world, and this is perhaps the best proof we have that photography can be an
art in its own right.
How did Hill, a landscape painter, come to take up photographic portraiture? At
the end of May 1843 occurred an event which made a profound impression on Hill.
After ten years of conflict, over 470 ministers of the Church of Scotland resigned on
a matter of principle : the right of congregations to choose their own ministers instead
of having them appointed by the Queen or by landed proprietors. The sacrifice
of these men who gave up their livelihood and privileges for an ideal deeply moved
Hill, and he set himself the task of commemorating the event in a monumental painting
of the historic meeting. He was not commissioned as has frequently been stated.
When the excitement of the occasion had died down, Hill began to realize the
tremendous difficulty of his self-imposed task ; how was he to set about it, he who
had never painted a portrait before? Sir David Brewster-who as an ordained minister
had taken an active part in the demonstration and was a member of the Free Church
Committee-persuaded Hill of the advantages of having photographic portraits taken
to serve as guides for his painting. He put Hill in touch with Robert Adamson and
in July they began to collaborate in taking single and group portraits of some of the
participants in the first General Assembly of the newly formed Free Church of
Scotland. The sitters were posed by Hill and photographed by Adamson. According
to the article in The Witness referred to above the largest group exhibited at the
gallery of Hill's brother Alexander, a printseller in Princes Street, Edinburgh, in July
1843 showed Dr Thomas Chalmers in the Moderator's chair surrounded by eighteen
or twenty of the better-known members of the Church.
As time went on it turned out to be an ideal association in which both partners
played an equally important part: Adamson's technical skill was indispensable to
Hill, who in his turn showed an artistic conception of an unusually high order, a
masterly sense of form, and a sure instinct for bold and simple composition. The
Pls 70, 72 portraits are powerful in characterization. Details of dress and accessories are subordinated
in order to concentrate the more on head and hands ; the massing of light
and shade and perfect ease of pose constitute their chief charm. They have grandeur,
power, and originality; they are, in short, imbued with the quality of Old Masters.