Classic Photographs

Carleton E. Watkins

'Ruins of the High Bridge, Cascades' (Middle Block House, Columbia River, Washington Territory)

Lot Closed

October 5, 04:20 PM GMT

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Carleton E. Watkins

1829 - 1916

'Ruins of the High Bridge, Cascades' (Middle Block House, Columbia River, Washington Territory)

mammoth-plate albumen print, a plate from the album Photographs of the Columbia River and Oregon (San Francisco: C. E. Watkins, 1872), on the original two-toned folio mount, letterpress title on the mount, 1867

image: 15 ¾ by 20 ¾ in. (40 by 52.7 cm.)

G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles

James Alinder, ed., Carleton E. Watkins: Photographs of the Columbia River and Oregon (Carmel: The Friends of Photography in association with The Weston Gallery, 1979), pl. 27

Weston Naef and Christine Hult-Lewis, Carleton Watkins: The Complete Mammoth Photographs (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011), cat. no. 477 and p. 204

This extraordinary view of a train stopped beside a collapsed bridge near the Columbia River captures several passengers perched at the front of the first car while the conductor stands on the ground to their right. Watkins' photographic caravan is partially visible on the flatcar attached to the rear of the train.

Prints of this image are in the following collections: California State Library, Sacramento (304/96); Oregon State Library, Salem (*917.95); Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada (98502-20:85); and Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto (917.95.W335:27).