Robert Macpherson Collection

Collection

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection comprises 74 photographic prints, half attributed to the Scottish photographer Robert Macpherson, mainly illustrating Rome and its environs, with a particular preference for subjects such as architecture, Roman antiquities, works of art, particularly sculpture, and landscapes. Some photographs depict the Greek temples in Paestum and views in Naples. Thirty-three photographs are mounted and carry his oval-blind stamp; the remaining ones in the collection have been attributed to Macpherson by Alistair Crawford in the 1990s. However, their layout and presentation differ formally from the mounted prints on the market bearing his distinguished embossed stamp, making their identification questionable in some respects. More than 1,000 photographs were listed in his catalogue. These subjects found a quick and ready market with the international tourists Rome attracted.

Reference number

PA-RMP

Dates

1851 - 1871

Creator

Macpherson, Robert, 1815 or 1816-1872 (Scottish photographer, artist and antique dealer) (Photographer, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

The items from the Robert Macpherson Collection are accessible by appointment with the archivist.

Biographical note

In the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography, Robert Macpherson is described as a Scottish photographer who specialised in photographs of Roman architecture and antiquities. He is also mentioned in the John Murray’s guidebooks of Rome (1858) in which he is acknowledged as one of the first artists and entrepeneurs to have introduced Photography in Rome. He was a photographer, printer, distributor and publisher of his own work together with her wife Gerardine Bate. Initially, he studied medicine but later on he moved on to studying Art. He came to Rome and, initially, continued to practise as a painter and art dealer. Then he became interested in Photography and specialised in large format albumen prints.

Extent

74 Photographic Prints (1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Early Fine Art photographs of Roman architecture, art and landscape by Scottish photographer and artist Robert Macpherson (1815 or 1816-1872).

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Macpherson photographs were probably acquired by Thomas Ashby through the Bulwer sisters, whose father must have known the Scottish photographer, as shown in a dedication inscribed on the recto of one of the photograph in the BSR collections. They might have been absorbed into the institutional holdings when Thomas Ashby's archive of photographs and notes was purchased by the BSR after Ashby's death in 1931.