Getty Museum

[Blind Harper]

Date

1845

Medium

Salted paper print from a paper negative

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

> Patrick Byrne (1797-1863), although blind, was a highly skilled harpist from Ireland. In April 1845 he performed in Edinburgh at one of the Waverley Balls, appearing in a tableau based on Sir Walter Scott's full-length narrative poem *The Lay of the Last Minstrel* (1805). > > This portrait of Byrne, taken at Rock House, Hill and Adamson’s residence, shows him as the central figure in Scott's (1771-1832) poem. He is seated with his harp, swathed in blankets, and wearing a wreath on his head. The photograph captures Scott's description of the musician: > *The way was long, the wind was cold, > The Minstrel was infirm and old; > His withered cheek, and tresses gray, > Seemed to have known a better day.* > > For a variant of this image, see [84.XO.734.4.3.17](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/99317/hill-adamson-byrne-the-blind-irish-harper-1845/). Adapted from Anne M. Lyden. *Hill and Adamson*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 56. ©1999, J. Paul Getty Museum.

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