Getty Museum
River View - Down the Valley - Yo Semite
Creator
Carleton WatkinsAmerican Photographer · 1829–1916
All works by this person →At twenty, Carleton Watkins headed out to California to make his fortune. After working as a daguerreotype operator in San Jose, he established his own practice and soon made his first visit to the Yosemite Valley. There he made thirty mammoth plate and one hundred stereograph views that were among the first photographs of Yosemite seen in the East. Partly on the strength of Watkins's photographs,
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1861
- Medium
- Albumen silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Reflections on the slow-moving Merced River give this image a sense of melancholy stillness. Further conveying this impression is a dead tree in the center of the image, one of two trees that dominate the composition. Among many photographs made by Carleton Watkins, this one juxtaposes the static and the dynamic. Beside the decaying tree, however, a young and healthy one thrives. Adjacent to both is the enduring facade of El Capitan.
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.