Classic Photographs
Classic Photographs
Ansel Adams
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California
Lot Closed
October 5, 02:03 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Ansel Adams
1902 - 1984
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California
gelatin silver print, mounted to Crescent illustration board, circa 1937; accompanied by the 'A Photograph of Yosemite by Ansel Adams, Virginia and Ansel Adams, Operating Best's Studio, Inc., Government Center, Yosemite National Park' presentation envelope (2)
image: 7 by 9 in. (17.8 by 22.9 cm.)
envelope: 14 ¼ by 11 ¼ in. (36.2 by 28.6 cm.)
By descent through family to the present owner
Ansel Adams, Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light (Boston, 1979), cover
Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs (Boston, 1983), p. 102
James Alinder, Ansel Adams 1902-1984 (Carmel, 1984), p. 34
Ansel Adams and Mary Street Alinder, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography (Boston, 1985), p. 243
James Alinder and John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams: Classic Images (Boston, 1985), pl. 46
Mary Street Alinder and Andrea Gray Stillman, Ansel Adams: Letters and Images 1916-1984 (Boston, 1988), p. 369
Andrea G. Stillman, ed., Yosemite: Ansel Adams (Boston, 1995), unpaginated
Mary Street Alinder, Ansel Adams: A Biography (New York, 1996), unpaginated
John P. Schaefer, The Ansel Adams Guide, Book 1: Basic Techniques of Photography (Boston, 1999), fig. 9.10-11
John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams at 100 (Boston, 2001), p. 89
Karen Haas and Rebecca Senf, Ansel Adams in The Lane Collection (Boston, 2005), pl. 57
Andrea G. Stillman, Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs (Boston, 2007), p. 123
Andrea G. Stillman, Looking at Ansel Adams: The Photographs and the Man (New York, 2012), p. 102
Peter Galassi, Ansel Adams in Yosemite Valley: Celebrating the Park at 150, (Boston, 2014), p. 191
The Best’s Studio in Yosemite Valley was established in 1902 by Virginia Best Adams’ father, the painter Harry Cassie Best. In addition to his own Western landscapes and genre scenes, Best offered for sale a range of Yosemite souvenirs, among them photographs and curios. Upon her father’s death in 1936, Virginia Adams inherited the Studio and proceeded, with Ansel, to transform it into a true art gallery, with white-washed walls and gallery lighting. Ansel Adams used the newly renovated space to showcase many of his own photographs, including photo-murals and folding photo-screens. It is believed that the print offered here was produced during the Adamses’ early tenure at Best’s Studio, when Adams typically printed in a small format.
The print of Clearing Winter Storm offered here is likely one of the earliest printings extant of Adams’ famous winter view from Yosemite’s Inspiration Point. It is accompanied by its original presentation envelope, with Best’s Studio information in letterpress.