EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE Monastery Peaks, No. 50 Cathedral Peaks, Yosemite National Park, California, 1872, Albumen print 16.6x21.25" ASG# EM/1371 Ink verso Monastery Peaks No 50

Eadweard Muybridge's mammoth plate views of Yosemite are the rarest by the photographers of Yellowstone. He made these large wet collodion negatives in 1872 in a series that is celebrated at museums around the world. Muybridge tended toward viewing the disordered nature turning this into masterpieces of the sublime. This view of Monastery Peaks focuses on the relationship of the foreground rocks and vertical forms of the trees to the near distant Monastery peak with the blank sky dominating most of the view.

Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) born Edward James Muggerage came to America form England in 1851. He worked as a book distributor that introduced him to photography albums. He began making smaller Yosemite landscapes and stereo views in 1867 and in 1872 made his most significant landscape work in Yosemite with the mammoth plate camera. After this he became interested in motion studies under the patronage of Leland Stanford. He took time lapse photographs of horses that showed for the first time that when a horse galloped all four hooves left the ground. Using this Animal locomotion format he moved to Philadelphia and made a series of Human Locomotion views and other works that effectively served the development of moving pictures and movies.

Very Good. Print mounted on original heavy yellow board 17x21.6” just slightly larger than the print, title in ink verso, likely Muybridge's hand. Overall tones are rich but light, 7-8 on a scale of 10, print has mild wear