Miss Elizabeth Rigby (Lady Eastlake)
Hill and Adamson
(Scottish, 19th century)
1844–45
Medium/TechniquePhotograph, salt print from waxed paper negative
DimensionsSheet: 20.6 x 15.3 cm (8 1/8 x 6 in.); Mount: 37.4 x 26.4 cm (14 3/4 x 10 3/8 in.)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds donated by The Tyche Foundation, Abbott Lawrence Fund, and Lucy Dalbiac Luard Fund
Accession number2007.826
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPhotographs
Collections
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson were an important early photographic team working in Edinburgh in the 1840s. They photographed Miss Elizabeth Rigby, the distinguished author of books and articles on art, photography, literature, and travel, on several occasions after she settled in Edinburgh in 1842. A few years after this photograph was made, Miss Rigby, aged forty, married Sir Charles Eastlake and became part of the social and intellectual elite of London. Sir Eastlake became the President of the Royal Academy, Director of the National Gallery, and the first President of the Photographic Society (subsequently renamed the Royal Photographic Society). Lady Eastlake later wrote that one of Hill & Adamson's portraits of her was the first specimen of photography that that Prince Albert was shown.
InscriptionsOn mount, recto, inscribed in pencil, l.l.: Lady Eastlake
On mount, recto, stamped in black ink, l.r.: RSA [Royal Scottish Academy]ProvenanceFrom a set of presentation albums given by David Octavius Hill to the Royal Scottish Academy in 1852; De-accessioned by the Royal Scottish Academy in 1977;
Thackeray & Robertson, San Francisco, 1978; The Collection of Paul F. Walter.
Sold at Sotheby's London on May 9, 2002 to Charles Isaacs, New York (lot 18); sold by Charles Isaacs to MFA December 12, 2007.
Thackeray & Robertson, San Francisco, 1978; The Collection of Paul F. Walter.
Sold at Sotheby's London on May 9, 2002 to Charles Isaacs, New York (lot 18); sold by Charles Isaacs to MFA December 12, 2007.
O. Mestral
about 1852–53