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View from the Sentinel Dome, Yosemite

1865–66
Not on view
Carleton Watkins made his name with views of Yosemite Valley, which he photographed repeatedly over a twenty-year period, beginning in 1861. By that time, he was a virtuoso practitioner of the difficult wet-collodion process using "mammoth" glass plates, which rendered the vastness of the landscape and its infinite details with unsurpassed scope and clarity. During a visit to Yosemite in 1865-66, Watkins ascended the Sentinel Dome. He made a series of three photographs of this unparalleled view, each an integral, self-sufficient picture. When seen together, they form a broad and encompassing embrace of the valley.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: View from the Sentinel Dome, Yosemite
  • Artist: Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829–1916)
  • Date: 1865–66
  • Medium: Albumen silver prints from glass negatives
  • Dimensions: Image 1: 40.3 × 52.1 cm (15 7/8 × 20 1/2 in.)
    Mount 1: 53.4 x 68.7cm (21 x 27 1/16in.)
    Image 2: 40.0 x 52.5 cm (15 3/4 x 20 11/16 in.)
    Mount 2: 53.3 x 68.8cm (21 x 27 1/16in.)
    Image 3: 40.8 x 52.5cm (16 1/16 x 20 11/16in.)
    Mount 3: 53.2 x 68.7cm (20 15/16 x 27 1/16in.)
  • Classification: Photographs
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1989
  • Object Number: 1989.1084.1–.3
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs

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