About This Artwork

Carleton Watkins
American, 1829–1916

Mendocino River, From the Rancherie, Mendocino County, California, c. 1863/68

Albumen silver print from wet-collodion glass negative
40 x 52.5 cm
Gift of the Auxiliary Board, 1981.649

In the 1860s Carleton Watkins, one of the great 19th-century photographers of the American West, used a large-format camera to provide some of the first glimpses of this expansive and unfamiliar territory. In Mendocino River, Watkins conveyed a sense of deep space by capturing the receding planes of mist-laden hills. The clearly discernible details, both near and far, convey a feeling of clarity and serenity. Watkins's views of Yosemite Valley encouraged President Lincoln and the United States Congress to pass legislation protecting this wilderness area.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

AIC, "A Measure of Nature: Landscape Photographs from the Permanent Collection,: May30-September 7, 1998.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception," June 25 - September 14, 1999; traveled to New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 11, 1999 - January 9, 2000, and Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, February 13 - May 7, 2000.

Publication History

Miller, Angela. 2001.“Albert Bierstadt, Landscape Aesthetics, and the Meanings of the West in the Civil War Era.” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, vol. 27. no. 1. p. 40-59, fig. 7.