Mrs. Rigby

ca. 1845

British, 1802-1870

Scottish, 1821-1848

Hill and Adamson were among the earliest and most innovative portrait photographers of their time. Dependent on direct sunlight for the long exposures they needed, the artists fashioned an outdoor 'studio' that pretended to be a furnished Victorian interior. This ambiguous pictorial setting hangs onto the conventions of painted portraiture but the incongruous squinting of the sitters belongs to the moment.

Anne Palgrave Rigby (1777-1872) was the wife of a Norfolk doctor and mother of twelve children. Frequent visitors to Edinburgh, she and her two daughters often sat for Hill and Adamson.

Calotype on paper

8 1/4 x 6 in. (21 x 15.3 cm)

Richard E. Fuller Acquisition Fund

74.25

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, 200 Photographs from the Museum Collection, Dec. 8, 1983 - Feb. 5, 1984. Text by Rod Slemmons. No cat. no.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Portrait Collaborations 19th-Century Works from the Permanent Collection, May 31, 2001 - Jan. 1, 2002.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM