View from Camp Grove, Yosemite

Artist Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829 - 1916)

Date1861

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 15 3/16 × 20 11/16 inches (38.58 × 52.55 cm)
Mount: 20 15/16 × 27 inches (53.18 × 68.58 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.245

SignedSigned on mount recto, lower right, in pencil: "C.E. Watkins"

InscribedOn mount recto, lower right corner, in pencil: "View from Camp Grove - Yosemite".

MarkingsOn mount recto, upper right, in pencil: "26."

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of a winding stream leading to a mountain ridge with trees along the water's edge.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Carleton Watkins was perhaps America's greatest landscape photographer. Watkins bypassed the conventional life of a studio practitioner, specializing instead in landscape work. His first trip to Yosemite, in 1861, resulted in a majestic series of 18 x 22-inch mammoth-plate views. These prints were widely acclaimed for both their technical perfection and their artistry. These images helped convince President Lincoln to ban development in the area, setting the stage for a national park system.

Published References

Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West, A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000): 578-83.

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