Getty Museum

[Dumbarton Presbytery Group]

Date

March 29 1845

Medium

Salted paper print from a paper negative

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

> This group portrait shows the ministers who belonged to the Dumbarton Presbytery in the west of Scotland. The men are, from left to right, Rev. William Alexander of Duntocher (1808-90), Rev. McMillan of Cardross (ordained 1828), Rev. James Smith (1806-62), and Rev. John Pollok (d. 1855). The figures were transposed directly into the [Disruption Picture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruption_of_1843) (they appear under the left skylight). Compared to an earlier [group portrait](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/63304/robert-adamson-free-church-committee-scottish-october-19-1843/) featuring Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), this image appears more sophisticated. The subjects, contained within a tighter composition, are all focusing on a large book. An interesting element in the design is the drape in the background, which is arranged precisely in the middle of the quartet, with the pattern of the fabric revealing an eagle swooping down among the men. > > Anne M. Lyden. *Hill and Adamson*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1999), 64. ©1999, J. Paul Getty Museum.

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