{
"data": {
"id": 162311,
"accession_number": "2002.44",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Domes, from the Sentinel Domes, Yosemite, c. 1865\u20131866. Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829\u20131916). Mammoth albumen print from wet collodion negative; image: 39.6 x 52.4 cm (15 9/16 x 20 5/8 in.); mounted: 53.2 x 68.1 cm (20 15/16 x 26 13/16 in.); matted: 71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2002.44",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Domes, from the Sentinel Domes, Yosemite",
"creation_date": "c. 1865\u20131866",
"creation_date_earliest": 1860,
"creation_date_latest": 1871,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "mammoth albumen print from wet collodion negative",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "Photography",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 39.6 x 52.4 cm (15 9/16 x 20 5/8 in.); Mounted: 53.2 x 68.1 cm (20 15/16 x 26 13/16 in.); Matted: 71.1 x 81.3 cm (28 x 32 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.396,
"height_inch": 15,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 0.524,
"width_inch": 20,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
},
"mounted": {
"height": 0.532,
"height_inch": 20,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"width": 0.681,
"width_inch": 26,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.8125
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.711,
"height_inch": 28,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.813,
"width_inch": 32,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "written in brown ink on recto: \"No. 94\"; \"C.E. Watkins\"; Sentinel Dome-Yosemite-No 94 3 (in red crayon)\" in pencil at top of mount: \"64-\" Bottom of mount: \"CEW. 182 .X The Domes. From the Sentinel Dome- Yosemite- No 94 3 (3 written in red conte crayon)",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 184646,
"title": "Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro Collection of American Photography",
"description": "Charles Isaacs and Carol Nigro Collection of American Photography. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 26-September 10, 2003).",
"opening_date": "2003-04-26T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 194095,
"title": "Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "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).",
"opening_date": "2007-06-24T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Although prolific in all types of commercial photography, Carleton Watkins was best known for his majestic images of Yosemite Valley. He first transported his mammoth-plate camera there in 1861 and returned many times to record America's natural treasure. Besides establishing aesthetic and technical standards of excellence for landscape photography, Watkins's work was instrumental in passing the 1864 Congressional bill enacted to protect Yosemite from development. In this panoramic view, he displayed elegantly curved rock formations in the foreground. The photograph was structured in overlapping planes, which effectively depicted the seemingly limitless gradations and undulations in the landscape. His skillful suggestion of atmospheric perspective made the mountains and trees appear less clearly visible in the background, enhancing the sense of a vast, pristine landscape.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79986318"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2002.44-the-domes-from-the-s"
]
},
"citations": [],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2002.44",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2002.44/2002.44_web.jpg",
"width": "1193",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "792020",
"filename": "2002.44_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2002.44/2002.44_print.jpg",
"width": "3400",
"height": "2544",
"filesize": "5908243",
"filename": "2002.44_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2002.44/2002.44_full.tif",
"width": "5000",
"height": "3741",
"filesize": "56132084",
"filename": "2002.44_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "John L. Severance Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 162311,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1061,
"description": "Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829\u20131916)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Carleton E. Watkins American, 1829-1916\r\n\r\nBorn in Oneonta, New York, Carleton Watkins traveled west to California in the early 1850s, shortly after the gold rush. He learned photography in 1854 from Robert Vance, one of the earliest and best of San Francisco's daguerreotypists. Vance's landscape photography, unusually skilled for the time, may have influenced Watkins's work.\r\n\tWatkins was among the first photographers in the Yosemite valley, shooting there in 1861, and his mammoth-plate landscape photographs of the area are believed to have contributed to Yosemite's early designation as a national park. His Yosemite Art Gallery opened in San Francisco in 1867, but unlike most photographers of the time, Watkins is not known to have done much portrait work. His subjects included topographical, scenic, survey, agricultural, and urban views of California and surrounding states, including Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. Through his friendship with railroad magnate Collis Huntington, Watkins photographed along railway lines and was able to reach distant sites. Huntington later bought him the farm where he retired. Watkins's landscapes were well received; he was awarded an international medal at the Paris Exposition (1867) and a medal of progress at the Vienna International Exposition (1873).\r\n\tThe numerous commissions and the work produced for the public market by Watkins combine clarity of vision with technical expertise. His work set the standard for subsequent photographers of western views, such as William Henry Jackson, Timothy O'Sullivan, and John K. Hillers. Although his life was difficult and his business sense lacking, his photographic efforts were protracted and indefatigable. Watkins's negatives were destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. He died several years later blind and insane. T.W.F.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1829",
"death_year": "1916",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2002-06-03T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1860,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1865\u20131866",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:25:45.016000"
}
}