Alpine Lake, In the Sierra Nevada, California
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1986
Accession Number
1986.1054.8
Art Historical Context
**Alpine Lake, In the Nevada, California** (1871) by Timothy H. O'Sullivan captures the raw majesty of the American West during a pivotal era of exploration. O'Sullivan, a pioneering photographer, documented the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth expedition led by Clarence King from 1867 to 1872. This albumen silver print showcases a serene alpine lake nestled in California's rugged Sierra Nevada mountains, highlighting the untouched wilderness that fueled national pride and westward expansion in the post-Civil War United States. The medium—an albumen silver print made from a glass negati...
About the Artist
Timothy H. O'Sullivan · 1840–present
Timothy H. O'Sullivan (c. 1840–1882) was a pioneering American photographer whose unflinching lens captured the raw devastation of the Civil War and the sublime vastness of the untamed West. Born in New York City—or possibly Ireland, with his family migrating soon after—his early life remains sparsely documented. As a teenager, he apprenticed under Mathew Brady at the famed daguerreotype studio on...