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Bear Lake, LVRR
About the Artwork
A distinguished commercial and documentary landscape photographer in Philadelphia, William H. Rau was commissioned in the 1890s by the Lehigh Valley Railroad to execute a series of scenic views along a new line. Realizing photography's advertising potential, the railroad company employed Rau to select picturesque subjects that might be seen while traveling by rail. Contact-printed from a mammoth plate negative, the landscape's shapes, textures, and tonal ranges are richly detailed.
Inscriptions
Written in negative: "570 BEAR LAKE. L.V.R.R. / WILLIAM H. RAU, PHILA."; in pencil on verso: "LVF 78.1158"
Provenance
Lehigh University Art Gallery, Lehigh, PA (Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc.), New York, NY September 22, 1988: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
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). 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).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- William H. Rau (American, 1855–1920)
- Date
- c. 1898–99
- Medium
- albumen print from gelatin dry plate negative
- Dimensions
- Image: 43.5 x 51.9 cm (17 1/8 x 20 7/16 in.); Paper: 45.3 x 53.7 cm (17 13/16 x 21 1/8 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 66 cm (22 x 26 in.)
- Type
- Photograph
- Classification
- Photograph
- Department
- Photography
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1988.88
More by William H. Rau in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00012918
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