L. W. Currey, Inc.

MUYBRIDGE, EADWEARD JAMES. [Yosemite Valley] "Yo-sem-i-te Valley, California." Signed "Helios" in the plate. Albumen Print. San Francisco, [California]: Cosmopolitan Gallery of Photographic Art, Montgomery St., copyright 1868. A stunning general view of Yosemite Valley looking east with El Capitan and Bridal Veil Fall in the background. Print measures 15x19.5 cm (5 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches); mounted on a mat measuring 35x46 cm (14 x 18 inches) with imprint below print reading: "ENTERED according to Act of Congress, A. D. 1868, by E. J. Muybridge, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California." Affixed to the mat verso is a tiny label that reads: "YO-SEM-I-TE VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. / [rule] / HELIOS, / Cosmopolitan Gallery of Photographic Art, / Montgomery St., San Francisco. / [rule] / Entered according to Act of Congress, 1868, / by E. J. Muybridge, in Clerk's Office of / Dist. Court U. S., District California." Eadweard James Muybridge (1830-1904) entered the photographic profession in 1867. He made his first trip to photograph Yosemite Valley in the spring and summer of 1867. The resulting series of 260 published photographs of the region launched his career as a photographer. In February 1868 Muybridge began promoting his 1867 series of photographic images of Yosemite Valley and the mammoth trees from his headquarters at Silas T. Selleck's "Cosmopolitan Gallery of Photographic Art." He advertised for general sale his "Scenery of the Yosemite Valley," a series of 260 photographs. 100 images were available in 6 x 8 inch format, mounted on tinted boards 14 x 18 inches. The remainder were stereographic or "card size for the album" (images printed from one or the other of the two stereographic negatives, measuring 4 x 2 1/2 inches). According to Robert Bartlett Haas, Muybridge: Man in Motion (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, [1976]), p. 19, Muybridge sold his 1867 views of Yosemite Valley "in vast quantity from Selleck's gallery (and no doubt other photographic outlets in San Francisco) and through Wilson, Hood and Company, of Philadelphia, who now became his Eastern agents." These Yosemite images assured Muybridge of a high place among photographers of long experience and wide reputation. Gordon Hendricks, Eadweard Muybridge: The Father of the Motion Picture (New York: Grossman Publishers: A Division of the Viking Press, [1975]) notes that the 1867 Yosemite images "were the most celebrated yet taken of the valley, and certainly among the finest. Only Carleton Watkins' views equaled them in quality or received comparable acclaim." Print fine; mat lightly worn at edges and tanned. Rare. (#179783).