David Octavius Hill

Born 1802, in Perth, Scotland; died 17 May 1870, in Edinburgh.

Painter, photographer. Genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes.

David Octavius Hill studied under Andrew Wilson in Edinburgh and held his first exhibition there in 1823. He painted scenes of rural Scottish life and later landscapes, publishing a series entitled The Land of Burns in 1841. However, he is better known as one of the pioneers of the art of photography.

In 1843 he and the photographer Robert Adamson were commissioned to photograph the founders of the Scottish Free Church. From then onwards the pair produced a great many landscapes, city views and especially portraits, gaining great acclaim for their sensitive use of what was then an extremely new technique.

"HILL, David Octavius." In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/benezit/B00087667 (accessed May 1, 2012).