[D. O. Hill and Professor James Miller]

Much of the success of the portraits made by Hill and Adamson (David Octavius Hill [1802-70] and Robert Adamson [1821-48])  is said to be due to Hill's convivial personality, which made sitters feel instantly at ease. In this particular image his sense of humor comes to the fore as he poses along with James Miller (1812-64), professor of surgery at Edinburgh University. The scene presents Hill the morning after a night of indulgence, indicated by the distressed look on his face. He rests his left arm on the base of The Last of the Romans (see 84.XO.734.4.2.17) while Miller checks his pulse. The title of the photograph is a clever pun on the inscription on Phaeton's gravestone in Ovid's Metamorphoses: "He, greatly daring, died." The inclusion of Miller is a visual pun—he was not only a professor but also a temperance reformer.

Anne M. Lyden. Hill and Adamson, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 92. ©1999, J. Paul Getty Museum.