three Muybridge mammoth-plate views of Yosemite

Eadweard Muybridge was “one of the most influential and colorful photographers of the nineteenth century” (Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography). By 1867 he had established himself as one of the leading landscape photographers in San Francisco. In 1872 Muybridge undertook an ambitious, expensive, and arduous photographic expedition to Yosemite. Over six months he made approximately 500 photographs of Yosemite and environs. Most of these were stereoviews, but he reserved his greatest efforts and artistry for “the fifty-one large-scale photographs that would define his work in the coming years. … His 1872 mammoth plates represented a technical tour de force; his camera was gigantic, and each negative measured about 17 by 22 inches” (Brookman, Eadweard Muybridge, Tate Britain, 2010).

 

“Most of his attention went into the production of the superb large plate views. The 17 x 21s are extremely impressive—vastly different from the [much smaller] 1867 photographs, softer, lighter, yet showing more depth and more detail. These magnificent landscape compositions stand alone, as the peak if Muybridge’s Yosemite contribution” (Hood and Haas, “Eadweard Muybridge’s Yosemite Valley Photographs, 1867-1872”).

 

“Muybridge’s pictures were now significantly distinct from those of Watkins or any other Yosemite photographer to date, as he shot from dizzying heights and precipitous angles, looking over cliffs and waterfalls, and focused on the effects of light, clouds, and moving water rather than on the solidity of things. He was painting the temporality of nature with the visual tools of light, atmosphere, and composition” (Brookman).

At the time he made these views Watkins was working with Houseworth to distribute his works. But after his return he abandoned that firm for Bradley & Rulofson, which would invest heavily in the printing and marketing of Muybridge’s work. By 1873 Muybridge had contracted with Bradley & Rulofson to publish his entire “catalogue of photographic views.” No complete set of the Yosemite mammoth-plate photographs is known. The second of these views, The Old Piute. Valley of the Yosemite, is an early example printed before the Bradley & Rulofson arrangement. The printed mount credits only “Muybridge… San Francisco,” and a Bradley & Rulofson printed paper label is added, presumably to market prints previously prepared by Muybridge.

We offer three of these masterworks of nineteenth-century photography. The collection comprises:

1. Valley of the Yosemite, from Moonlight Rock. 1872. Mammoth-plate albumen print (approx. 16 ¾ x 21 ½ in.), original printed mount stating “No. 1,” and “Bradley & Rulofson, 429 Montgomery St., S.F. Publishers” credit on the mount. Surface stains.

2. The Old Piute. Valley of the Yosemite. 1872. Mammoth-plate albumen print (approx. 17 x 21 ½ in.), original mount with gold lithograph border and credit “Muybridge” and “San Francisco.” Affixed to the foot of the mount is an original label stating “Bradley & Rulofson, 429 Montgomery Street, S. F. Publishers. The Old Piute. Valley of the Yo-Semite Muybridge, Photo.” This print also exists on mounts with the number 26 by Bradley &

Rulofson and with “Yo-Semite” changed to “Yosemite.” The present example is an early print made by Muybridge before he contracted with Bradley & Rulofson to publish his works.

3. The High Sierra, From Glacier Rock. 1872. Mammoth-plate albumen print (approx.. 16 ¾ x 21 ½ in.), original printed mount stating “No. 38,” and ‘Bradley & Rulofson, 429 Montgomery St., S. F. Publishers’ credit on the mount.

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