id: 156527 accession number: 1992.238 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.238 updated: 2023-04-26 11:23:56.617000 East Humboldt Mountains, Utah, 1868. Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, 1840–1882). Albumen print from wet collodion negative; image: 19.7 x 27 cm (7 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.); matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, James Parmelee Fund 1992.238 title: East Humboldt Mountains, Utah title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 1868 creation date earliest: 1868 creation date latest: 1868 current location: creditline: James Parmelee Fund copyright: --- culture: America, 19th century technique: albumen print from wet collodion negative department: Photography collection: PH - American 19th Century type: Photograph find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Timothy H. O'Sullivan (American, 1840–1882) - artist Timothy H. O'Sullivan American, b. Ireland?, 1840-1882 An important photographer of the American Civil War, Timothy O'Sullivan worked first for Mathew Brady, then Alexander Gardner in their Washington, D.C., studios, producing some of the war's best known images. The son of Irish immigrants, whether O'Sullivan was born in New York or Ireland remains unresolved. His photographs appear in Gardner's classic volumes, Photographic Incidents of the War (1863) and Photographic Sketchbook of the War (1866). After the war's end, O'Sullivan became a photographer for government land surveys, working from 1867-69 for Clarence King's expedition along the 40th parallel in Utah, Nevada, and California. In 1870 he was photographer for Thomas O. Selfridge's survey of the Isthmus of Darien to determine the path of the Panama Canal. That same year he was hired by Lieutenant George M. Wheeler to accompany his military surveys of the land west of the 100th meridian and expeditions to California, Nevada, and Arizona. O'Sullivan returned to work for King in 1872 before joining Wheeler again in 1873. Briefly a partner in the Washington photographic firm of Armstrong and Company, he left in 1880 to become chief photographer for the U.S. Treasury, replacing his friend and colleague Lewis Emory Walker. Throughout his work, O'Sullivan employed a spare, restrained style that appeals to the modern eye. It is perhaps significant that he remained in the employ of the government on projects in which objectivity was paramount. By contrast, works by his peers often seem influenced by the romanticism implicit in the enterprises, mining, development, and the building of railroads, that they were hired to record. T.W.F. --- measurements: Image: 19.7 x 27 cm (7 3/4 x 10 5/8 in.); Matted: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Written on negative: "101"; in pencil on recto: "7.5"; in black ink on verso: "101"; "H-7"; translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Selected Acquisitions opening date: 1993-02-09T05:00:00 Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993). title: Pioneers of Landscape Photography from the Museum's Collection opening date: 2000-08-12T00:00:00 Pioneers of Landscape Photography from the Museum's Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 12, 2000-January 3, 2001). title: Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2007-06-24T00:00:00 Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007); Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh, PA (October 3, 2009-January 3, 2010). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * CMA, January 28 - March 15, 1992: "Selected Acquisitions," CMA Bulletin, 80 (February 1993), p. 69, no. 123.
CMA, January 14 - March 27, 1994: "Land of Sky and Water: 19th Century Photographs of the American West," no exhibition catalogue.
Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; August 12, 2000 - January 3, 2001. "Pioneers of Landscape Photography from the Museum's Collection."
The Cleveland Museum of Art (6/24/07 - 9/16/07) and Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittburgh, PA (10/3/2009 - 1/3/2010); "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art", no exhibition catalogue. --- PROVENANCE Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT date: footnotes: citations: Private Collection, CT date: footnotes: citations: (Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ) date: footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: December 7, 1992 footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: By nature and by experience gained during the Civil War, O’Sullivan was ideally suited for the physical and creative demands required of the official photographer for the geological exploration of the fortieth parallel, led by the enterprising Yale geologist Clarence King. The goal of the expedition was to survey the geological structure and natural resources of a swath of territory 100 miles wide, from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains across the Great Basin to the Rocky Mountains. While on the expedition in 1867–69 and 1872, O’Sullivan simultaneously pursued his own interest in perfecting a balanced, aesthetic style of landscape photography while providing a faithful record of the natural terrain. As typified in this print, he positioned the camera at a distance parallel to the majestic scenery, presenting a shallow, flattened depiction of space. The image describes in sharp detail the sheer beauty and rugged scale of this Western landscape. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Cleveland Museum of Art, Tom E Hinson. Catalogue of Photography. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. page number: Reproduced: P. 263 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1992.238/1992.238_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1992.238/1992.238_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1992.238/1992.238_full.tif