Carleton E. Watkins

The Old Book Store, San Francisco

Collection of Gordon L. Bennett, San Francisco (acquired from the above in 1967)

Sotheby’s New York, The Gordon L. Bennett Collection of Carleton Watkins New Series Photographs of Yosemite, 28 April 2004, Sale 7966, Lot 52

Acquired from the above by the present owner

San Francisco, Focus Gallery, Early Views of Yosemite and the California Missions: Photographs by Carleton E. Watkins from the Collection of Gordon Bennett, November - December 1973

Monterey Museum of Art, Carleton E. Watkins: Yosemite Photographs, Courtesy of Gordon L. Bennett, June - September 1993

San Francisco Museum of Art; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Washington, D. C., The National Gallery of Art, Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception, May 1999 - April 2000

Weston Naef and Christine Hult-Lewis, Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs, Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011, cat. no. 129, illustrated

This mammoth-plate albumen photograph was acquired at the landmark sale of The Gordon L. Bennett Collection of Carleton Watkins New Series Photographs of Yosemite, held at Replica Shoes 's New York in 2004. It was originally part of an album, likely unique, of forty Watkins 'New Series' views from 1878-81. Not only far scarcer than his earlier work from the 1860s, Watkins 'New Series' views are also among the last great, large-format photographs made in Yosemite Valley. In the present photograph, El Capitan is visible on the left and the Bridal Veil Fall is on the right. The top of Half Dome is visible in the far distance.  

At the time of this writing, no other print of this image has been located. In the groundbreaking catalogue raisonné Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs, Weston Naef and Christine Hult-Lewis list cite only the present print in their census.