Newhaven Fishwife
Medium
Salted paper print from paper negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1937
Accession Number
37.98.1.66
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Newhaven Fishwife** (1843–47) is a striking salted paper print from a paper negative, created by the pioneering Scottish partnership of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson., a noted painter, collaborated with chemist and photographer Adamson in 1843 to document prominent figures for a grand painting commemorating the Disruption of the of Scotland. Their work extended to intimate portraits of everyday people, including the resilient fishwives of Newhaven a fishing village near Edinburgh. This photograph captures one such woman, embodying the strength and dignity of working-class life. The...
About the Artist
David Octavius Hill|Robert Adamson|Hill and Adamson · 1802–1870
David Octavius Hill (1802–1870) was a Scottish painter, photographer, and arts administrator whose pioneering photography partnership with Robert Adamson from 1843 to 1847 transformed the medium into an art form. Born in Perth and trained in Edinburgh, Hill established himself as a landscape painter and became secretary of the Royal Scottish Academy, a position he held for nearly forty years. His ...