a perfect chemistry

"A Perfect Chemistry" is the name of one of the exhibitions I went to see at the SNPG in Edinburgh, while Luke was loading up the car with all his possessions, moving them back home for the summer.

The exhibition was about the partnership between the painter David Octavius Hill, and Robert Adamson, one of the pioneers of photography in Scotland. They started working together after the Great Disruption in May 1843, when over 400 ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church. Hill wanted to paint the first Assembly of the Free Church, which took place a few days later, but he was pressed for time to sketch likenesses of the ministers before they went home to different parts of the country. It was suggested to him that he might make use of the new art of photography to do this, and he was introduced to Adamson. In the end, the painting took 23 years to finish, and was never as critically acclaimed as the photographs used as studies for it.  Adamson died in 1847 at the age of 26. This detail of the painting shows him with his wooden camera, with Hill behind him. The extra shows the whole painting.

We are back home now, and Luke's first load of washing is on the line. He only has a week here before he goes off to be Head Lifeguard at YMCA Frost Valley for the next three months...