[Colinton Wood]

A photograph of trees and a wooden fence, this calotype appears to be a slight departure for Hill and Adamson (David Octavius Hill [1802-70] and Robert Adamson [1821-48]), in the sense that the image is a landscape and almost abstract. The fence posts, trunks, and branches produce a network of dark forms set against the light, blurred background of the foliage. The picture fades around the edges, almost like a vignette. The soft focus and lack of detail—further enhanced by the paper fibers of the print—create an impression, rather than a copy, of nature.

While the paintings of the French Impressionists were not to come for several decades, the prints of French photographers did bear relation to those of Hill and Adamson. Aware that the greatest competition regarding artistry came from France (and curiously not England, the home of paper photography), Hill expressed in a March 14, 1845, letter to Roberts a desire to produce images that "would earn more solid applause than the livid pictures of Daguerre [1789-1851]." This plate anticipates the work of Gustave Le Gray (1820-82), who in 1849 began making photographs in the Forest of Fontainebleau (see 84.XM.637.17, 84.XM.637.11 and 84.XM.637.23).

Anne M. Lyden. Hill and Adamson, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 98. ©1999, J. Paul Getty Museum.