[Lady Mary Hamilton (Campbell) Ruthven]

This sensuous image of Lady Ruthven (1789-1885) is one of Hill and Adamson's (David Octavius Hill [1802-70] and Robert Adamson [1821-48]) finest portraits. Standing with her back to the camera, her head slightly turned to the side to reveal the nape of her neck, she is reminiscent of women in paintings by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Hill and Adamson have skillfully contrasted areas of light and shadow the bonnet is set against the dark background, the lace shawl is delicately contrasted with the dress. The attention given to the apparel recalls fashion plates popular during the nineteenth century.

The original print of this image dates from 1847 and was one of the last that Hill and Adamson made together. In a letter Hill wrote to Lady Ruthven in late December of that year, he seems disillusioned and near to giving up photography. Sadly, the partnership did come to an end shortly thereafter when Robert Adamson died, most likely of tuberculosis.

In 1905 Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) published in Camera Work, the journal of the Photo-Secessionist movement, photogravures by James Craig Annan (1864-1946) of Hill and Adamson's calotypes. Annan, who had begun making finely crafted copies of the duo's work in the 1890s, recognized and appreciated the beauty of the early pictures. He singled out Hill as the creative force behind the photographs, effectively reducing Adamson's role within the alliance. Nevertheless, Annan's efforts served to introduce the work of these two nineteeth-century pioneers to a twentieth-century audience.

Anne M. Lyden. Hill and Adamson, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 100. ©1999, J. Paul Getty Museum.