Alvin Langdon Coburn

oversized gum-platinum print, tipped to a green paper mount, circa 1911

The George Eastman House, Rochester, to The Museum of Modern Art, by exchange, 1974

Sotheby's New York, Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art, 22 October 2002, Sale 7851, Lot 40

Galerie Zur Stockeregg: Thirty Years, 1979-2009 (Zurich, 2009), pl. 5 (this print)

This warm-toned print, on lovely matte-surface paper, is in essentially excellent condition. The highlights are creamy white in the snow-capped mountains, and the blacks are rich and velvety. Two tiny white spots in the upper right corner are present in the negative and are not flaws in the print itself. A 3/4-inch crease, which may break the emulsion slightly, and a few attendant, smaller faint creases are visible upon extremely close examination in the lower right corner of the print. Deposits of expertly applied original retouching are also visible upon the closest viewing. The print is trimmed to the image and there is minor wear and chipping at the periphery. Written in an unidentified hand on the reverse of the photograph are the following: 'Acc. 67:157:8 (Copy A)' and 'C658.' The reverse of the photograph is tipped along the upper edge to a light green paper mount. There is a 1/4-inch tear along the lower edge of the mount, which does not affect the print. Written in an unidentified hand on the reverse of the mount are the following: 'Acc. 67:157:8 (Copy A)'; 'C658;' and 'GEH 15753.'
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In 1911, Alvin Langdon Coburn went by rail to California, where he spent the spring and summer months camping, hiking, and climbing in Yosemite Valley—‘one of the world’s finest beauty spots,’ as he wrote in his autobiography.  ‘It has been my privilege to present my camera to very many things which have caused me to experience true wonder, and this is one of them. . .’   From Yosemite, he traveled to the Grand Canyon, where he continued to marvel at the dramatic scenery.  The photographs he made in the American West contained for him a higher level of meaning:  for the deeply spiritual Coburn, they were invested with divine presence.    

Snow is still on the peaks of the Sierra in the summer months, and in the image offered here, the snow-capped Mount Florence is visible on the horizon.  One of the highest peaks in Yosemite, at 12,560 feet, it was named for Florence Hutchings, daughter of the owner of the Hutchings Hotel, one of the Valley’s first inns.  The photograph may have been made looking up Little Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point, one of the park’s most famous overlooks, from which Coburn took a number of other pictures.      

The photo-historian Nancy Newhall, who spoke with the photographer at length over a number of years, relates that Yosemite’s ‘tremendous reality,’ for Coburn, ‘became most meaningful under cloud-light.’   The shimmering, muted grays of the present photograph are rendered here with Coburn’s characteristic nuance.   The rich tonal range of Coburn’s platinum prints, as Newhall recounts, were due to a coating of gum mixed with VanDyke brown pigment that deepened the blacks and enriched the whites (From Adams to Stieglitz, pp. 36 and 25).    

This photograph comes originally from the vast repository of Coburn’s work, acquired directly from the photographer, at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.  A duplicate of an identical image in the Eastman House’s collection, it was given to The Museum of Modern Art in 1974, by exchange, and included in the Museum’s sale of works in these rooms in 2002.  Although the Museum’s title for the work at that time referenced the Grand Canyon, the landscape in the image offered here can be definitively identified as Yosemite.