Internationally acclaimed photographer-artists Alicia Bruce and David Eustace recently visited to view their work on the staircase of the Signet Library.

Alicia’s portrait of Caroline Docherty OBE WS was taken in the Commissioners’ Room, where Caroline was so accustomed to chairing meetings throughout her ten years as Deputy Keeper of the Signet. Alicia has published and exhibited widely and her work won the Royal Scottish Academy Morton Award.

David Eustace has worked worldwide. His photographic works are included in several public and private collections, notably the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, Deutsche Bank Collection and City of Edinburgh Art Collection. David’s portraits of Andrew Stewart WS, Lord Ericht, and Peter Braid WS, Lord Braid, also now appear on the main staircase. These prints are taken from David’s portfolio portraying 24 individual Senators of the College of Justice in homage to the portraiture of Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823). Entitled ‘Thirty-Two York Place’, the photographs were taken by David at that Edinburgh address, where Raeburn once had his studio. Lord Braid’s portrait was acquired with the support of law firm Morton Fraser, where Lord Braid was a partner from 1985 to 2005.

Blending modernity and heritage is at the heart of everything the WS Society does. These wonderful photographs exemplify that approach and are more than worthy companions of the older oil portraiture at the Signet Library.