Captain Charles Etty
Artist
David Octavius Hill
(Scottish, 1802-1870)
Artist
Robert Adamson
(Scottish, 1821-1848)
CultureScottish
DateOctober 16, 1844
MediumSalted paper print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 5/8 × 5 9/16 in. (19.4 × 14.1 cm)
Overall: 14 3/4 × 10 1/4 in. (37.5 × 26 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Overall: 14 3/4 × 10 1/4 in. (37.5 × 26 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Horace W. Goldsmith and Art Purchase Funds
Object number91.28
On View
Not on viewLabel TextHill and Adamson David Octavius Hill, Scottish (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson, Scottish (1821-1848) Captain Charles Etty, October 16, 1844 Salted paper print Purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith and Art Purchase Funds 91.28 David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson are celebrated as the first successful painter/photographer collaborative team. Hill, a landscape painter and book illustrator, was commissioned to produce a massive group portrait (when finished in 1866, it measured eleven feet by five feet, and included 474 people). He enlisted the photographic skills of Adamson to provide individual portraits from which he could paint. Hill posed and arranged the sitters, while Adamson handled the technicalities. The photographs remain excellent examples of the early use of William Henry Fox Talbot's calotype process, the close description of faces in bright sunlight demonstrates a prescient and clear understanding of the medium. The sitter, Captain Charles Etty, died in 1856 at age 63. He was a merchant seaman and sugar planter in Java. He was the brother of William Etty, an artist who was also photographed by Hill and Adamson. This portrait was made when Etty visited Edinburgh with his brother and daughter on October 16 and 17, 1844. Edited By: GLY Edited Date: 11/07/2003Exhibition History"An Enduring Interest: The Photographs of Alexander Gardner," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., Oct. 20, 1991 - Jan. 5, 1992. "A History of Photography: 15 Year at the Chrysler Museum," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., September 11, 1993 - March 6, 1994. "20/20: Fashion in Photography," The Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, September 23, 1999 - January 2, 2000. "Silver Images: The Photography Collection at 25," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., November 5, 2003 - August 2004. Published ReferencesBrooks Johnson, _An Enduring Interest: The Photographs of Alexander Gardner_, exh. cat., The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Va., 1991, 10 (detail).
