The Three Brothers, 4480 Feet, Yosemite

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

Dateca. 1865-1875

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 15 7/8 × 20 7/16 inches (40.32 × 51.91 cm)
Mount: 22 × 28 inches (55.88 × 71.12 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation

Object number2005.37.50

SignedCredited on image recto, lower right, in negative: "Taber photo., San Francisco"

InscribedOn image recto, lower left, in negative: "29. The Three Brothers, 3,818 feet, Yosemite, Cal."

Markingsnone

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

Exhibition History

Rotation 1. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 17 – October 25, 2007, no cat.

Rotation 23. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 18 – May 28, 2017, no cat.

Gallery Label

Based in San Francisco, Carleton E. Watkins was celebrated for his majestic images of the Yosemite Valley, a site he first visited in 1861. Watkins worked with an 18 x 22 inch “mammoth plate” camera. In the days before enlarging became practical, photographers could only make large prints by starting with equally large negatives. Watkins used the wet-collodion process of the day, which required that each glass negative be coated, sensitized, and developed in a portable dark tent at the scene. A master of this technique, Watkins made images that are technically perfect and classically composed.

Provenance

Charles Isaacs, New York, NY;
Purchased from Charles Isaacs by the Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO by 2005;
Given by the Hall Family Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

Published References

Keith F. Davis. The Origins of American Photography: from Daguerreotype to Dry-Plate, 1839-1885. With contributions by Jane L. Aspinwall. Kansas City, MO: Hall Family Foundation: in association with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2007, 340 (repro), 341.

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