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Hill, David Octavius

Hill, David Octavius
Hill, David Octavius
Hill, David Octavius
About the artist
Name
Hill, David Octavius
Biography
David Octavius Hill was born in Perth in 1802, the son of a bookseller. From the age of 16 he studied at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh, concentrating on painting and lithography. Early lithographs show scenes of Perthshire scenery and later landscape paintings relate to the life of Robert Burns. In 1843 he began working on a painting to commemorate the Disruption of the Church of Scotland including all the prominent figures. On the advice of Sir David Brewster, the physicist who had introduced the calotype to Scotland, he employed the young photographer Robert Adamson (1821-1848) to make studies. Their subsequent partnership lasted until Adamson's early death, producing nearly 3,000 calotype images, not only of prominent churchmen, but of artists and most notably the fisherwomen of Newhaven. In other respects, Hill did much to support the arts in Scotland and on its foundation was the unpaid secretary of the Scottish Academy, established by the Royal Institution, to be known later as the Royal Scottish Academy.
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