In 1867, Watkins made a four-month trip to Oregon and the Columbia River. Josiah Whitney accompanied him for the first month and helped finance the excursion. Watkins had photographed the Nevada, Vernal, and Yosemite Falls before he went to Oregon; on those occasions, he either described the waterfalls as elements within broader landscapes (on the mammoth plates) or made close-up shots of the water roaring over the rocks (for stereo viewing). In this marvelously minimal photograph, he seems to have applied the simplicity of effect he usually reserved for stereographs to the monumental mammoth plate; boldly reducing the cascade to its essentials, white water cleaves dark rock in a single stroke, like liquid lightning.
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Title:Multnomah Falls Cascade, Columbia River
Artist:Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829–1916)
Date:1867
Medium:Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions:Image: 52.4 x 40 cm (20 5/8 x 15 3/4 in.) Mount: 64.7 x 49.5 cm (25 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.)
Classification:Photographs
Credit Line:Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005
Object Number:2005.100.108
Inscription: Inscribed in pencil on mount, verso TL: "Multnomah Falls Cascade // Columbia River"
[Graphics International, Ltd., Washington, DC]; Gilman Paper Company Collection, New York, December 5, 1978
Amon Carter Museum of American Art. "Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West," April 1, 1983–May 22, 1983.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West," June 15, 1983–August 14, 1983.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West," September 15, 1983–October 30, 1983.
Oakland Museum of California. "Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West," December 16, 1983–February 19, 1984.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," May 25–July 4, 1993.
Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," August 7–October 2, 1993.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," June 19–September 11, 1994.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of Photography from the Gilman Paper Company Collection," February 26–May 23, 1999.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception," May 28–September 7, 1999.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception," October 11, 1999–January 9, 2000.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception," February 20–May 7, 2000.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Photography: Processes, Preservation, and Conservation," January 30–May 6, 2001.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Old Faces and Places: American Photographs, 1845-1870," February 3–April 25, 2004.
Watkins, Carleton E. Photographs of the Columbia River and Oregon, edited by James Alinder. Carmel, Calif.: Friends of Photography, Carmel, 1980. no. 50.
Palmquist, Peter E. Carleton Watkins: Photographer of the American West. Albuquerque: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 1983. pl. 35.
Apraxine, Pierre. Photographs from the Collection of the Gilman Paper Company. Reeds Springs, Mo.: White Oak Press, 1985. pl. 113.
Hambourg, Maria Morris, Pierre Apraxine, Malcolm Daniel, Virginia Heckert, and Jeff L. Rosenheim. The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century, Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993. nos. 124, 158, p. 328.
Rule, Amy, ed. Carleton E. Watkins: Selected Texts and Bibliography. Oxford: Clio Press, 1993. no. 21.
Nickel, Douglas R. Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception. San Francisco: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. no. 75, p. 224, pl. 68.
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