Charles Dorman Robinson (1847-1933) by Kent L. Seavey December 21, 1965 to March 11, 1966. San Francisco: California Historical Society, n.d. [1965]. 28x21.6 cm, pp. [1-24] (not paginated), 5 full page illustrations, original mustard wrappers printed in black, stapled. First edition. Limited to 250 copies. Issued as "Catalogue 5 in a new series on California artists." "In 1880, Robinson made his first trip to Yosemite Valley. The artist, whose penchant for the dramatic on a grant scale never waned, was thrilled by the beauty and majesty of one of the greatest of natural panoramas. The valley became his summer home for twenty-four years and eventually produced his most ambitious and monumental work ... Robinson is a representative example of the American painters who followed, after the tradition of the Hudson River School, some of the newer artistic notions being introduced in part from Europe in the 1870s. One of these, Pleinairism, worked toward a new freedom of technique aiming for a true rendition of light and color as a basis of the movement. For many artists of this bent, the atmospheric effect of light was the prime source of interest ... Robinson's landscapes are his own. He is quite consistent in his preference for early or fading light, relying on simple but effective compositional structure to emphasize atmospheric effects. The natural configuration of the Yosemite Valley with its dramatic appeal allowed a free hand with composition, much of which was applied to the luminescent qualities of rain and reflected moonlight ... His contribution to California art is a visual record of California's beauty drawn with great sensitivity and sincere affection and understanding of his subject matter. Of the many artists who painted in the great Valley of the Yosemite, recording the many aspects of its grandeur, none succeeded in mastering the Valley on the scale of the 'Yosemite Panorama,' Robinson's greatest dramatic feat" (pp. [7-8]). Oddly, among the five illustrations in this monograph, there are no views of Yosemite or the High Sierra. Two inked textual corrections (Clinton, Ohio corrected to Clinton, Iowa). A bit of dust soiling to wrappers, a nearly fine copy. (#166396).
"Edition limited to 250 copies" on verso of title leaf.