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Aberdeen Portraits No. 1

George Washington Wilson British, Scottish
1857
Not on view
As the leading portrait photographer in Aberdeen, Scotland, Wilson had on file hundreds of negatives of the city’s professional elite. At the suggestion of his friend George Walker, a bookseller, Wilson cut out and pasted a selection of portrait heads in a tight oval, placing the largest and most important figures at the center; then he re-photographed the collage. Displayed in the window of Walker’s bookshop, the completed photomontage attracted immediate attention. Remarkably, some passersby did not realize that the photograph was composed of separate portraits, and Wilson and Walker received inquiries about “when & where all these people had been collected & photographed.”

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Aberdeen Portraits No. 1
  • Artist: George Washington Wilson (British, Grampian (Baffshire), Scotland 1823–1893 Abedeen, Scotland)
  • Date: 1857
  • Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
  • Dimensions: Image: 21.3 x 17.2 cm (8 3/8 x 6 3/4 in.)
    Mount: 37.7 x 30 cm (14 13/16 x 11 13/16 in.)
    Frame: 43.2 x 35.6 cm (17 x 14 in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2011
  • Object Number: 2011.424
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

More Artwork

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Derwent-Water, from Friar's Crag, Keswick, England (No. 582), George Washington Wilson British, Scottish, Albumen silver print
Derwent-Water, from Friar's Crag, Keswick, England (No. 582)
George Washington Wilson
1860s
On the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey, William Callow British, Watercolor
On the Wharfe, Bolton Abbey
William Callow
September 30, 1858
[The Great Wave, Sète], Gustave Le Gray French, Albumen silver print from glass negative
[The Great Wave, Sète]
Gustave Le Gray
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Stroh Violin, George Evans & Co. English, Mahogany and aluminum, British
Stroh Violin
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Cape Horn near Celilo, Carleton E. Watkins American, Albumen silver print from glass negative
Cape Horn near Celilo
Carleton E. Watkins
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