Lot 209
Yosemite, California -- Watkins, Carleton E.
Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Auction: 4 May 2011 at 12:00 BST
Description
"El Capitan, 3,300 feet, Yosemite, California". New series view, Mammoth albumen print, 52 x 38cm., framed and glazed
Footnote
Note An iconic image by one of San Francisco's best known photographers who gained international fame in the 1860's for his views of the Yosemite Valley. Following his expedition to Yosemite, Watkins' reputation was securely established and for the next two decades he created some of the finest American landscape photographs of the nineteenth century.
In 1875 Watkins declared bankruptcy and his negatives and gallery were sold to photographier Isaiah Taber who began to publish Watkins's images under his own name. Watkins began again with a "New Series" of photographs, including a wide variety of subjects and formats, and returnined to many of the sites previously captured in his "Old Series" of images. The San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed the entire contents of his studio, which he had inteneded to preserve at Stanford University.