The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel

In the early 19th century, Continental artists and writers became fascinated with the history and the landscape of Scotland, partly under the spell of Sir Walter Scott’s novels. Daguerre, who was trained as a stage designer in Paris, specialised in painting dioramas – realistically-painted sets representing scenes viewed through an aperture, where the light could be altered to create different weather effects. This painting combines the illusionism and theatricality of the diorama with the Romanticism of the moonlit ruin. In its concern with the effects of light, it also anticipates the artist’s pioneering work in photography with his invention of the daguerreotype process.