ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)

50 Pages·2015·15.33 MB·English

ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Approaching Storm near Flagstaff, Arizona (ca. 1936)
Vintage gelatin silver print
9-5/8 x 14-7/8 inches, mounted
Signed in pencil on mount; with photographer's Carmel, California 93923 ink
stamp, titled, dated, and annotated in ink, on mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 1999; exhibition history available on
request.

Comments: This elegant, minimal landscape was printed on a warm, matte-
surface paper Adams used in the 1930s. Interestingly, it is not published in any
of Adams’s many books, nor has another print from this negative been located.
Adams was unsure of both the negative date and the print date of this
photograph. It is possible that the negative burned in Adams’s studio fire of
1937.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Aspens, Northern New Mexico (ca. 1958)
Gelatin silver print
18 x 22-5/8 inches, mounted
Signed and numbered in pencil on mount; with photographer's Portfolio VII,
1976 ink stamp, titled and dated in print, on mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 1990; exhibition history available on
request.

Illustrated: This Is the American Earth; et al.

Comments: Within an hour of making this famous image, Adams made a vertical
variant in the same aspen grove in New Mexico. Adams was spending the day in
the mountains north of Santa Fe with his wife, Virginia. He later wrote that he
was “in the shadow of the mountains, the light was cool and quiet and no wind
was stirring.” Adams chose this image for the cover of his pioneering book, This
Is the American Earth.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Aspens, Northern New Mexico (ca. 1958)
Vintage gelatin silver print
25-3/4 x 20-1/8 inches, mounted
Signed in ink on mount; with photographer’s Carmel, California 93923 ink
stamp, titled and dated in ink, on mount verso.

Provenance: From the photographer to Sue and Otto Meyer [former president,
Mondavi Wines, Napa, California]; Private Collection, acquired 1987; exhibition
history available on request.

Illustrated: Ansel Adams: an Autobiography; et al.

Comments: Adams described his aspen tree photographs as “stately.” This rare
oversize photograph is remarkably warm, suggesting it was printed soon after
the negative’s exposure in the northern New Mexico mountains in 1958. Adams
wrote about the technical challenges of printing this negative, while the
horizontal variant of this image, which was shot the same day, proved
significantly easier.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
At Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Monument, California (ca. 1942)
Early gelatin silver print
9-3/16 x 7-3/16 inches, mounted
Signed in pencil on mount; with photographer's ink stamp, annotated in ink, on
mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 1993; exhibition history available on
request.

Illustrated: Ansel Adams: Images 1923–1974; et al.

Comments: Adams created this image using the patterns of the deep mountain
crevices in Death Valley. Like many Northern California Modernist
photographers of his day, Adams sought to isolate shapes and forms in natural
settings. At Zabriskie Point is a superb example of his work of the early 1940s.
This is a lovely, warm, and early print made before Adams left San Francisco
for Carmel, where he would live and teach until the end of his life.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Cathedral Rocks, Winter, Yosemite Valley, California (ca. 1943)
Vintage gelatin silver print
7-3/16 x 9-1/4 inches, mounted
Signed in pencil on mount; signed and titled in ink, on mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 2002; exhibition history available on
request.

Illustrated: Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light; et al.

Comments: Adams’s most well-known image of Cathedral Rocks was made in
the summer, and he wrote about the difficulty of finding an unobstructed view
because of a road junction at the base of the formation. This winter view is
unpublished and may be unique. Ansel and Virginia Adams gifted this particular
print to its original owner in the 1940s.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Cedar Tree, Cliffs, Yosemite Valley (ca. 1939)
Early gelatin silver print
19-7/16 x 13-3/8 inches, mounted
Signed in ink on mount; with photographer's earliest Carmel, California ink
stamp, titled in ink, on mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 1997; exhibition history available on
request.

Comments: This vintage photograph is superbly printed and likely unique in this
size. Adams constructed the visual space in this image by placing the cedar
tree in the foreground against the two-dimensional pattern of geometric shapes
on the cliff behind.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Clearing Storm, Sonoma County, California (1951)
Early gelatin silver print
8-11/16 x 11-13/16 inches, mounted
Signed in ink on mount; with photographer’s earliest Carmel, California ink
stamp, titled in ink, on mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 1994; exhibition history available on
request.

Illustrated: Ansel Adams: Images 1923–1974; et al.

Comments: This photograph was originally conceived in 1951 as a commission
for a five-panel screen for the dining room of a Northern California ranching
family. Adams created several screens from a variety of negatives during his
career, literally cutting large-format prints, or “murals,” into sections and
incorporating them into a wooden framework.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California (ca. 1940)
Vintage gelatin silver print
15-1/2 x 19-1/4 inches, mounted
Signed and inscribed in pencil on mount.

Provenance: From the photographer to Bob Klein [an employee of the Yosemite
Park and Curry Company]; Private Collection, acquired 1994; exhibition history
available on request.

Illustrated: Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light; et al.

Comments: The foremost Adams from this private collection. An extremely
warm and beautiful print, this photograph is the earliest know enlargement
from the negative and was made on G-surface paper around 1940. Adams was
never completely certain of the date of this negative and during his lifetime
dated it between 1940 and 1944. Contemporary thought is that the negative
was made in the late 1930s. Adams believed this image’s view, shot from New
Inspiration Point, was the most commanding view of the Yosemite Valley.
Adams chose this photograph for the cover of his most important publication,
Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Dawn, Autumn, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee (1948)
Gelatin silver print
19-3/8 x 14-7/8 inches, mounted
Signed in pencil on mount; with photographer’s Carmel, California 93921 ink
stamp, titled in ink, on mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 2000; exhibition history available on
request.

Illustrated: Ansel Adams: Our National Parks; et al.

Comments: In the early 1940s, Adams visited most of the American national
parks system on assignment for the U.S. State Department. Several years later,
he was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships that allowed him to again explore
America’s protected wilderness. This iconic image of the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, the largest federally protected upland landmass east
of the Mississippi River, was photographed from an opposing hillside using a
lens with a long focal length.
ANSEL ADAMS (American, 1902–1984)
Dogwood, Yosemite National Park, California (1938)
Gelatin silver print
13-9/16 x 9-9/16 inches, mounted
Signed in pencil on mount; with photographer's Carmel, California 93921 ink
stamp, titled and dated in ink, on mount verso.

Provenance: Private Collection, acquired 1994; exhibition history available on
request.

Illustrated: Ansel Adams: Classic Images; et al.

Comments: This delightful still life was shot with one of Adams’s small-view
cameras, a 5 x 7. While most prints of this image were published as part of
Adams’s Portfolio III, 1960, and entitled Yosemite Valley, he made this
particular print individually. It explores nature with an emphasis on defined
shape and form—a quality of the Northern California avant-garde photographers
of his time.