Becker Stereograph Viewer, patented 1866, The Art Museum, Princeton University, Gift of Henry-Russell Hitchcock. In 1865 Watkins became official photographer for the California State Geological Survey. About Carleton Watkins is among the most respected and innovative photographers of the American West. Though he never had a studio in Oregon, the spectacular photos of the Columbia Gorge taken by him in 1867 formed the core of the recent "Wild Beauty" exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. It was partly based on this material that President Lincoln signed a bill in 1864 banning development in the valley, which led to the establishment of the national-parks system. There he displayed 125 of his large Pacific coast views and had more than a thousand images available for view through stereoscopes. about The Land Through a Lens: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Art Bridges + Terra Foundation Initiative, The Land Through a Lens: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Union Diggings, Columbia Hill, Nevada County, The Vernal and Nevada Falls, from Glacier Point, Yosemite, Cascade, Nevada Falls, Yosemite, California, San Francisco, Corner of California and Montgomery Streets, Using the Nam June Paik Archive - Access and Hours, Highlights from the Nam June Paik Archive, Online Resources for Researching Nam June Paik, Publication Requests for the Nam June Paik Archive. All carleton watkins photographs ship within 48 hours and include a 30-day money-back guarantee. Following the banking crisis of 1875, he was forced to turn over his gallery and entire stock of negatives to a creditor. His photographs of the valley significantly influenced the United States Congress' decision to preserve it as a National Park. Born in Oneonta, New York, he moved to California in 1849, taught himself the new medium of photography, and established his reputation in 1861 with an astonishing series of views of Yosemite Valley. A prolific landscape record evolved as soon as cameras and equipment could be reliably used outdoors. Stay up to date about our exhibitions, news, programs, and special offers. Born in Oneonta, New York, he left for California in 1851 at the age of twenty-two. 7th St and Constitution Ave NW We are not announcing a reopening date at this time and will provide updates on our websites and social media. 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily, East Building Carleton Watkins, Yosemite Falls (River View), 1861, Albumen print from wet-collodion negative, Private Collection, Montecito, California. In the early 1860s Watkins began photographing mines for clients who required views of geographic features as evidence in legal cases involving land. He worked odd jobs in the city until he found work looking after a photography studio. Carleton Watkins, Coast View, Mendocino County, 1863, Albumen print from wet-collodion negative, Private Collection, Montecito, California. Carleton Watkins, Arch at the West End Farallons, 1869, Albumen print from wet-collodion negative, Collection of Stanford University Libraries, Cecil H. Green Library, Department of Special Collections. Some of his best work has been selected for this Image Gallery. Carleton Watkins (American, 1829-1916) was one of the most highly acclaimed of early western photographers, yet Watkins's work has never been fully cataloged. As the result of a financial crisis and the loss of his earlier negatives to a creditor, Carleton Watkins started photographing anew in the mid-1870s. The UCLA Library Digital Collections includes rare and unique digital materials developed by the UCLA Library to support education, research, service, and creative expression. In particular, this essay considers how Carleton Watkins' 1860s photographs of Yosemite Valley created both a way of viewing the American landscape and a representational vocabulary for environmentalist claims to public preservation. With his stereo and mammoth plate cameras, he made photographs of the area's sublime views and distinctive geology. His achievement prompted others, such as photographer Charles R. Savage, to refer to Watkins as ​“the most advanced in the photographic art…who has produced, with his camera, results second to none in either the eastern or western hemispheres.”. In addition to making photographs of the burgeoning coastal community and its millhouses, he also focused on the area's citizenry, indigenous wildlife, and rugged coastal geology. Linked Open Data URI Few landscape photographers gained such national acclaim as Carleton Watkins. Closed, Sculpture Garden Carleton Watkins (1829-1916), the creator of the striking photographs of the remote Yosemite Valley that so inspired the New York Times critic, had moved to California around 1851 from the small New York town of Oneonta. After a brief apprenticeship in a portrait photography gallery, he was in business for himself by 1861. Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) is widely considered the greatest American photographer of the nineteenth century and arguably the most influential artist of his era. Watkins received support in his travels from his friend Collis Huntington, a principal in the Central Pacific Railroad, who offered him a flatcar to carry his van filled with photographic materials. He focused mainly on landscape photography, and Yosemite Valley was a favorite subject of his. From the outset of his career, Watkins searched for ways to bring his subjects alive to those unable to experience them firsthand. A CHECKLIST OF C. E. WATKINS' STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS - NEW SERIES Hired by the Oregon Steam Company, Watkins departed in July 1867 on an expedition up the Willamette and Columbia Rivers to photograph their scenic beauty as well as the company's railways, which ran along unnavigable stretches of the rivers. The consummate photographer of the American West, Carleton Watkins (1829–1916), however, had absolutely no field training during the Civil War. [SAAM, 1994.89.4], Merry A. Foresta American Photographs: The First Century (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996). See more ideas about carleton watkins, carleton, ansel adams. In 1851, when he was twenty-one, Watkins left Oneonta, New York, for California, following the example of Collis P. Huntington, another Oneonta native who had moved to California to make his fortune. They were among the first photographs of the valley sent back east. Carleton E. Watkins was an American photographer of the 19th century. Born in New York, he moved to California and quickly became interested in photography. The owner taught Watkins photography basics. His pictures of Yosemite Valley served an essential role […] Sep 29, 2011 - Before Ansel Adams there was Carleton Watkins. In 1864 and 1865, Watkins was hired by the geologists Josiah Whitney and William Brewer to make photographs of Yosemite for their California State Geological Survey. Watkins is best known for his views of Yosemite and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Sculpture Garden is now open from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily. Carleton Watkins, Cape Horn, Columbia River, 1867, Albumen print from wet-collodion negative, Private Collection, Montecito, California. 4th St and Constitution Ave NW Featured Watkins Photographs Watkins produced several thousand images during his career, the majority in the stereoview format. No complete listings of his "Old Series" stereoviews, published before 1875, are known. A new wide-angle lens and several new trails along the precipitous rim of the valley allowed him to make pictures of increasing complexity and daring. During these years, he traveled further afield in search of new subjects: he sailed to the barren Farallon Islands, twenty-six miles off the California coast; he photographed the geysers of Sonoma County; he traveled to Mount Shasta in the northern part of the state; and he documented the massive hydraulic gold mining operations in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Born in Oneonta, New York, he left for California in 1851 at the age of twenty-two. As a public health precaution due to COVID-19, all Smithsonian museums are closed temporarily. Watkins "New Series" of stereoviews began with view number 3001 and covered more than ten years of Watkins photographic efforts. As specimens of the photographic art they are unequaled. Carleton Watkins' Yosemite pictures brought him worldwide acclaim and were groundbreaking technically and artistically. Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) was the consummate photographer of the American West. He focused mainly on landscape photography, and Yosemite Valley was a favorite subject of his. For the rest of his life, Watkins was plagued by economic hardship; in 1895 he lived with his wife and children for several months in an abandoned railroad boxcar. Senator John Conness of California, who laid the foundations for the Yosemite Bill of 1864 to protect the area from development and commercial exploitation, also owned a set of Watkins' prints. He transported this large, heavy camera, with tripod, glass plates, and a portable darkroom, to the most forbidding spots, and consistently returned with images of superb technical quality. Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, Few landscape photographers gained such national acclaim as Carleton Watkins. Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of twelve rare, mammoth-plate photographs by Carleton Watkins, considered by many to be the greatest American photographer of the nineteenth century. Learn more. Carleton E. Watkins (1829–1916) was an American photographer of the 19th century. Carleton Watkins is an overlooked figure in the history of American photography--Artistically we could not have wanted for more in someone recording the "wilds" of the West. Watkins lived in San Francisco from 1853 to 1906, when he lost his studio in an earthquake. See more ideas about yosemite valley, carleton watkins, yosemite. He is best known for his pictures of Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. When the visionary photographer Carleton Watkins visited Tacoma in 1882 the city was finally recovering from the national economic panic of 1873 and was riding the crest of its most thrilling early days. Carleton Watkins (1829-1916), the creator of the striking photographs of the remote Yosemite Valley that so inspired the New York Times critic, had moved to California around 1851 from the small New York town of Oneonta. He made his first trip to Yosemite in the fall of 1861, producing thirty mammoth-plate and one hundred stereoscopic negatives. Carleton E. Watkins, born in 1829, is considered one of the greatest photographers of the American West. This forlorn statement by Watkins (1829-1916), a pioneering photographer who began his career by chance as a commercial portraitist in Golden Shore, Calif., but later became celebrated for large-scale, exquisitely detailed Western landscapes, reflects the misfortunes of … Nothing in the way of landscapes can be more impressive. Watkins' "New Series" stereographs begin with series number 3001. After the loss of his earlier negatives to a creditor during a financial crisis, Carleton Watkins started photographing anew in the mid-1870s. Biography: Pioneer 19th Century photographer Carleton Watkins Landscapes, Photography Masters 2 March 2017 0 Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) was an American photographer of the 19th century. On this expedition his photographic wagon rode ​“piggyback” on a specially designed car on the Union Pacific Railroad. Closed. Carleton Watkins was born in Oneonta, New York on November 11, 1829, the eldest of eight children. The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity. The West and East Buildings remain closed at this time. Now without inventory, he began again with a "New Series" of photographs, which includes a wide variety of subjects and formats. Watkins moved to California early in his life, living in San Francisco. He moved his studio to more gracious quarters in San Francisco, and in 1871 opened his lavish Yosemite Art Gallery. Carleton Watkins' photographs were shown at popular international displays, such as the Paris International Exposition of 1867, where he won a medal for landscape photography. With this instrument, Watkins was able to capture the enormous scale of the vast landcapes of the American West as well as intricate details. Carleton Watkins Carleton Watkins is likely the best know photographer on this site, at least to Oregonians, and at least now. ìSugar Loaf Islands and Seal Rocks, Farallons,î 1868ñ1869, albumen print by Carleton Watkins (U.S.A., 1829ñ1916), from the album ìPhotographs of the Pacific Coast. Hampered by the limited size of his traditional camera, Watkins asked a cabinetmaker in 1861 to build a huge camera for him capable of making negatives measuring 18 by 22 inches, called mammoth plates. See collections of historic photographs and manuscripts. This website is our new interface for discovery and engagement of these collections. Unlike most studio owners, however, Watkins gave up the financial security of gallery portraiture for the more sporadic opportunities in landscape photography. The views are...indescribably unique and beautiful. The landscape painter, Albert Bierstadt, saw Watkins' photographs at the Goupil Gallery in New York in 1862 and was inspired by them to visit the Yosemite Valley. His photographs of the valley significantly influenced the United States Congress’ decision to … . Besides being a great technical reference, this work serves as walk through history. This site brings together complete collections of Watkins's photographs. His photos throughout the west are known for their beauty and fine detail. West Building He is best known for his pictures of Yosemite Valley and the nearby Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. More collections added weekly. In the summer of 1861 Watkins first traveled to the remote Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove of Big Trees, two hundred miles east of San Francisco, to photograph their fabled wonders. After a brief apprenticeship in a portrait photography gallery, he was in business for himself by 1861. Expressing a view held by many nineteenth-century Americans, Watkins depicted industry existing comfortably with nature. Carleton Watkins, Late George Cling Peaches, c. 1887-1888, Albumen print from wet-collodion negative, Courtesy of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that his images of the massive sequoia, Grizzly Giant, "made the tree possible," for these photographs provided evidence of its existence. His photographs document the rapid growth of the city, at that time the biggest in the West, as well as the Bay Area communities that surround it. Watkins was the focus of … 6th St and Constitution Ave NW With the railroad reaching Southern California and Arizona, Watkins was able to travel to the resorts at the end of its tracks. In 1853 he moved to San Francisco, where by chance he learned how to photograph when asked to stand in for an absent employee in a photography studio. Carleton Watkins 1829-1916. Inductee Sponsor: Ed & Marjie Lobit . He lost his studio in an earthquake in 1906, by which time he had stopped making photographs, and died in 1916. Born in New York, he moved to California and quickly became interested in photography. Carleton Watkins, Mirror View of El Capitan, c. 1872, Albumen print from wet-collodion negative, Collection of Stanford University Libraries, Cecil H. Green Library, Department of Special Collections. A newspaper reporter described the trip: ​“The chartered two railroad cars…one of which contained the horses, wagon, hay, and feed, while the other was supplied with all the appointments requisite for domestic life.” Along the way, Watkins photographed geological formations, among them Witches Rock. He opened his own Yosemite Art Gallery in San Francisco two years later. Viewers around the country were entranced by Watkins' photographs. This essay examines the significance of landscape photography in the birth of environmentalism. During the last years of his career, Watkins' fortunes declined. Apr 19, 2017 - Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) was an American photographer of the 19th century. Carleton Watkins – Additional Biographical Information: "Photographer Carleton Watkins has been the subject of several major museum exhibitions, including those recently at the National Gallery of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The Columbia River series, which consists of 60 large negatives and 136 stereographs taken along the route upriver to Cape Horn, represents a high point in Watkins' career. The Mining and Scientific Press, always interested in the content of such images, especially praised Watkin’s work: “[The pictures]…are really masterpieces of the photographic art, and present the most perfect and life-like representations of hydraulic mining we have ever seen on paper.” The Press was even more enthusiastic about the utility of the photographs for the mining industry itself: ​“The accurate distinctness with which [the sites] are shown, in connection with the topography of the country, timber, etc., is really remarkable, and affords another instance of the value of the photographic art in aiding the engineer to describe the progress and condition of his work.” When the mining operation caused pollution and destructive flooding, Watkins’s photographs became the first used as court evidence in an environmental suit. Following his first photographic expedition to Yosemite in the summer of 1861, Watkins' reputation was securely established, and for the next two decades he created some of the finest American landscape photographs of the nineteenth century. Watkins returned to Yosemite on several other occasions in the 1860s and 1870s. -- Exhibition review of Yosemite Valley photographs by Carleton Watkins at Goupil Gallery, New York, The New York Times, 1862. See more ideas about carleton watkins, carleton, yosemite. By 1869 the Central Pacific line had pushed through the Sierra Nevada mountains, enabling Watkins to make photographs of the wilderness landscapes that could now be seen by railroad travelers. It was a manic time for the city and the Northern Pacific Railroad that had swung wildly from the monumental success of… Carleton E. Watkins, in full Carleton Emmons Watkins or Carleton Eugene Watkins, (born Nov. 11, 1829, Oneonta, N.Y., U.S.—died June 23, 1916, Imola, Calif.), American photographer best known for his artistic documentation of the landscape of the American West. Amazon.com: Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West (9780826306593): Peter E. Palmquist, Martha A. Sandweiss: Books Choose your favorite carleton watkins photographs from millions of available designs. In Kern County, California, he photographed peaches and other crops grown with the aid of new irrigation systems, and in ever more remote parts of the West, he continued to make pictures for land inventories. One of many young men drawn to the West during the Gold Rush, he first worked in Sacramento as a teamster and carpenter for a dry goods establishment. His travels, however, began to be curtailed by deteriorating health, and by his marriage at the age of fifty and the subsequent birth of two children. More About Carleton Watkins Aug 28, 2016 - Explore Treothe's board "Carleton Watkins", followed by 245 people on Pinterest. Others helped to lure investors westward with the images they made along the routes of the railroads. The breathtaking scenery of the Columbia Gorge, considered second only to that of Yosemite, provided Watkins with many fresh subjects for his new gallery. Sep 9, 2018 - Watkins (1829-1916) was a noted California photographer who shot a series of photos in the Yosemite Valley that significantly influenced the the U.S. Congress' decision to establish that Valley as a National Park in 1864. In 1863 Watkins visited the inaccessible northern California town of Mendocino to document its thriving lumber industry on behalf of its mill owners. Yosemite, the Gold Rush, the Comstock mining bonanza and early San Francisco are just a few of the high lights. © 2021 National Gallery of Art   Notices   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy. In the winter of 1873–74 Watkins traveled to Utah with the landscape painter William Keith. A great pictorial archive of one of the West's greatest photographer in the 19th century. Born in New York, Watkins moved to California during the Gold Rush and settled in San Francisco in 1853. Most nineteenth-century photographers worked on government-sponsored surveys. The walls were lined with 18 x 22-inch prints in black walnut frames with gilt-edged mats. In spring 1867 Watkins opened his first public gallery and sent thirty of his mammoth prints to the Universal Exposition in Paris, where he was awarded a medal. He also produced images of industrial sites in that region. All public programs are online only, on-site public tours and events are currently suspended. Carleton Watkins, Russian Hill Observatory, c. 1865, Albumen silver print stereograph, Collection of Daniel Wolf. Born in New York, he moved to California and quickly became interested in photography. Keep in touch by subscribing to news and updates from SAAM and Renwick Gallery. Carleton Watkins was born in New York as the oldest of eight children. He focused mainly on landscape photography, and Yosemite Valley was a favorite subject of his. Over the next twenty years Watkins returned to the valley at least seven times. Carleton Watkins (1829–1916) is widely considered the greatest American photographer of the nineteenth century and arguably the most influential artist of his era. Beautiful photographs of San Francisco and the Northwest's industrial beginnings, and timeless representation of Yosemite's natural wonder. In addition to panoramas, he made photographs documenting subjects from different points of view in order to give viewers the sense that they too were traveling along the river.