Janet Burnet

Engraved Biographical Text, Genre: Women, Old Age: Women, Portrait: Woman

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 19.6 x 15.8 cm : Art folio #1, plate #2

Associated Highlights:

Die Kunst in der Photographie : 1897-1908 - German photographic art journal

The subject of this portrait, Janet Burnet, was the aunt of the Glasgow architect John James Burnet. Taken in 1893, the date has been etched into the plate at upper right in a technique similarly used by  the artist Hans Holbein in his miniatures. In the book, The Art of the Photographer- J. Craig Annan 1864-1946 by William Buchanan, National Galleries of Scotland, 1992:  we learn more about this photograph:  “His best known portrait, Janet Burnet, which was seen in Berlin, Bradford, Brussels, Buffalo, Glasgow, London and New York, proved immensely popular although it is not appreciated to the same extent today.  Cameron (the etcher and painter D.Y. Cameron) described it as “a masterpiece and one of the finest things in photography.”  The critics saw it as a relation of Whistler’s Mother (1872-Louvre) but it bears a closer kinship to Hill and Adamson’s Mrs. Rigby, which Annan knew well because he made photogravure prints of it from their calotype negative, and kept one on his mantlepiece.  He said of it, “There is no sweeter presentment of old age.” 1.

1. The Art of the Photographer J. Craig Annan 1864-1946 : William Buchanan : National Galleries of Scotland : 1992 : pp. 20-21