Tantalus Cañon, Utah

1870s

Not on view

William Henry Jackson was employed for eight years on the western survey headed by geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden, which began in 1870 in the Uinta Mountains and eventually embraced the Grand Canyon and the Yellowstone River. During his first two years with the survey, Jackson worked closely with the American landscape painters Thomas Moran and Sanford Gifford, often setting up his camera next to their easels and recording the scene from an identical vantage point. Soon after this initial artistic apprenticeship, however, Jackson went on to develop his own graphic vision, impressively realized in this tightly composed image of obdurate canyon walls cut by a narrow ribbon of water and sky.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Tantalus Cañon, Utah
Artist: William Henry Jackson (American, 1843–1942)
Date: 1870s
Medium: Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Gift of A. Hyatt Mayor, 1973
Object Number: 1973.641.3
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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