The Arch of Septimius Severus, Rome

Creator

Photographer · 1811–1872

Until photography lured him in 1851, Robert Macpherson enjoyed a socially active career as a painter, journalist, and art dealer. A tall, gregarious redhead described as "gifted with that rare endowment, the art of pleasing," the Scottish Macpherson cut a striking figure wearing a kilt on the streets of Rome, where he had moved for his health around 1840. He became a commercial photographer and op