VITTORIO SELLA. Valsorey Glacier, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AIV 1524. 11.3x15.2" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 16 1/2x12 7/8" grey board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Valsorey Glacier IV 1524. Inscribed in pencil on mount verso: Loan 44; Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner.

A glorious view of Sella's climbing companions on the glacial floes.

The Valsorey Glacier/Glacier de Valsorey was a 3.5 km long in 2005 situated in the Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais, Switzerland. In 1877 Sella left school to serve in the Italian army, and then returned to Biella to carry on the family business since his father had died in 1876. Every holiday, summer and winter, Sella was in the nearby mountains, often carrying an old photographic apparatus that had belonged to his father. By 1879, the twenty-year-old Sella had become an accomplished photographer who had mastered the collodion wet plate process and learned to develop mammoth glass plates on site, even in harsh weather conditions. He also began working with dry plates around this time.

Very Good: Mild abrasions, wear, dirt, spots, corner wear and edge wear. Mount has edge and corner wear, dirt and marks.