Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00000339Bridal Veil, Yosemite
About the Artwork
The grand scale of the American West was difficult to convey in early photographs, which were intimately scaled objects meant for the hand and the album. Starting in the late 1850s, a handful of photographers shooting landscapes and historical settings began producing “mammoth” prints, including the San Francisco-based Carleton E. Watkins. The seemingly gargantuan scale of these prints allowed a new, immersive relationship between the viewer and the image, enhancing that “you are there” feeling.
Inscriptions
Written in pencil on recto of mount: "THE BRIDAL VEIL--900 FEET--YOSEMITE"; "/2"
Exhibition history
Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993). Legacy of Light: Master Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 24, 1996-February 2, 1997). Carleton Watkins: The Art of Perception. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA (organizer) (May 28-September 7, 1999); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (October 11, 1999-January 9, 2000); National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (February 20-May 7, 2000). Icons of American Photography: A Century of Photographs from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24-September 16, 2007); Frick Art and Historical Center, Pittsburgh, PA (October 3, 2009-January 3, 2010). Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Carleton E. Watkins (American, 1829–1916)
- Date
- 1865–66
- Medium
- albumen print from wet collodion negative
- Dimensions
- Image: 40.1 x 52.4 cm (15 13/16 x 20 5/8 in.); Matted: 61 x 76.2 cm (24 x 30 in.)
- Type
- Photograph
- Classification
- Photograph
- Department
- Photography
- Credit line
- Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
- Accession no.
- 1992.12
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Open-access museum record · AT-00000339
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