Carleton E. Watkins

mammoth-plate albumen print, mounted, annotated in an unidentified hand in ink on the reverse, matted, 1867

Other prints of this image:

James Alinder, David Featherstone, and Russ Anderson, Carleton E. Watkins: Photographs of the Columbia River and Oregon (Friends of Photography and The Weston Gallery, 1979), pl. 15

Douglas R. Nickel, Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1999, in conjunction with the exhibition), fig. 3

Grading this albumen print on a scale of 1 to 10 – a 10 being an albumen print that has rich dark tones and highlights that retain all of their original detail – this print rates a 10. The dark tones are a satisfying reddish-brown, and the highlights an unsullied cream color. The print is essentially in excellent condition. When examined very closely, some inconsistency can be seen in the print's surface in the upper right portion of the image. This may be due to unevenness in a coating applied to the print before leaving Watkins's studio, or due to some unevenness in the paper's original albumen coating. It is visible as an uneven cloudiness when the print is viewed in raking light. Close examination in raking light also shows a very faint vertical scuff in the surface, extending from the top of the print to just above the stump in the foreground. These condition issues are not immediately apparent, and they in no way diminish the power of this impressive albumen print. The print is mounted to smooth, stiff, cream-colored board that shows minor edge wear and has some very light occasional soiling. There is faint age-darkening along the right edge. None of this encroaches upon the image. The dimensions of the mount are 20 ¾ by 26 7/8 inches.
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Watkins's view of Oregon's highest peak, Mt. Hood, was taken outside the town of Vancouver in what is now Washington State.  Rising 11,249 feet above sea level, the imposing Mt. Hood is one of many volcanic mountains in the Cascade Range.  The mountain's volcanic status made it of particular interest to geologist Josiah Dwight Whitney, Watkins's friend and some-time patron.  The late Peter Palmquist, dean of Watkins studies, recounts that Whitney, in his capacity as director of the California State Geological Survey, provided some funding for the photographer's Oregon trip.  Palmquist notes that Whitney was especially eager to have photographs of the area's volcanic mountains, such as Mt. Hood (Carleton E. Watkins: Photographer of the American West, pp. 33-34). 

This photograph of Mt. Hood provides an example of the modernity of Watkins's aesthetic.  There is much in the image that does not conform to conventional 19^th-century landscape composition: the long view of the foreground punctuated randomly by ragged tree stumps, for instance, or the wild profusion of fallen brush and dilapidated fencing.  Nonetheless, the photograph is remarkable—not despite the inclusion of these disparate elements, but because of Watkins's brilliant incorporation of them into a complex composition.   

Perhaps understandably, Whitney was disappointed with Watkins's view of Mt. Hood, taken as it was from such an extreme distance, and he suggested that the photographer attempt to enlarge the image so that he could study the mountain more easily.  In a letter to a colleague, Whitney wrote, 'The mountain of course occupies only a small place in the picture; but Watkins is going to try to enlarge that portion & print it separately to try to bring out the snow by . . . [photographic manipulation]' (ibid., p. 35, note 102).  It is unknown if Watkins fulfilled this request. 

Weston Naef and the Carleton Watkins Mammoth Plate Catalogue Raisonné Project have located 8 other prints of this image in institutional collections, and 2 in private collections.