Click image to view full screen
Yosemite Valley from Mariposa Trail
✓ Authenticity guarantee · ✓ Specialist condition report · ✓ Insured worldwide shipping · ✓ Private-room viewing
In 1859, Charles L. Weed made the first photographs of the wild and breathtakingly beautiful Yosemite region in California. These pioneering photographs spoke of the area's splendors to future visitors and artists. Probably five years later, he returned to Yosemite to begin creating his remarkable mammoth plate views (roughly 17x22 inches). This celebrated vista of the distant, mountainous, forest scene is the best known of Weed's modest production of large-scale photographs. The serenity and order of the composition is punctuated by an isolated, spindly tree perched at a cliff's edge, asymmetrically dividing the composition while uniting the blank sky with the mountainous landscape below. The figure leaning against the tree in the foreground gives scale to the scene and suggests human isolation in the vastness of nature.
| Artist / Maker | Charles Leander Weed |
|---|---|
| Date | c. 1865 |
| Culture / Origin | America |
| Medium | mammoth albumen print from wet collodion negative |
| Dimensions | Image: 39.7 x 51.7 cm (15 5/8 x 20 3/8 in.); Mounted: 55.6 x 71 cm (21 7/8 x 27 15/16 in.); Matted: 71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.) |
| Department | Photography |
| Type | Photograph |
About the Artist
Charles Leander Weed American, 1824-1903 Born in New York state, Charles Leander Weed moved to Sacramento, where he became a camera operator in the daguerreotype portrait studio of George J. Watson in 1854. Four years later he was named the junior partner of Robert Vance, the leading daguerreotypist in California during the 1850s. Weed is recognized for his early views of Yosemite. In June 1859 he was the first known photographer to venture into the valley, taken there by the… Full biography →
Provenance & Source
Image & data: Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0 / Public Domain.
Condition
A detailed condition report and high-resolution photography are available from our specialists in advance of the sale.
Shipping & Collection
Fine-art shipping with climate control and full insurance to over 120 countries; collection by appointment.
Buying at Matchless Pieces
Register, verify your identity, and bid online or in a private room. Buyer’s premium and taxes are shown before you confirm.
