BOEC Volume 13, 2017

Cover Illustration

The Old Town of Edinburgh from Waverley Bridge (detail), from an original photogravure made from Sir George Reid's drawing by Charles Amand-Durand (1831 – 1905) in Paris for W. & R. Chambers c.1889. Amand-Durand introduced what he termed the “héliogravure” (photogravure) technique to France, and this is one of three photogravures by him of works by Sir George Reid used by W. & R. Chambers to illustrate St. Giles: Church, College and Cathedral by J. Cameron Lees (Edinburgh, W. & R. Chambers, 1889). In partnership with Georges Duplessis, Amand-Durand produced famous reproductions of the great engravers of history, Durer, Rembrandt, Claude and others. The Aberdonian Sir George Reid (1841-1913) studied in Edinburgh and Holland before settling in Edinburgh where he became one of the foremost portrait painters of the late nineteenth century.

Image courtesy of the Signet Library, Edinburgh.