Cape Horn near Celilo
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 40 x 52.4cm (15 3/4 x 20 5/8in.) Mount: 54.5 x 68.6 cm (21 7/16 x 27 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.109
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Cape Horn near Celilo**, captured by Carleton E. Watkins in 1867, offers a breathtaking vista of the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. This albumen silver print from a negative showcases the dramatic cliffs of Cape Horn towering over the river, with the faint traces of railway construction snaking through the rugged terrain near Celilo Falls. Watkins, a pioneering photographer of the American West, masterfully framed the scene to highlight humanity's bold encroachment on untamed nature. The albumen process, using egg whites to bind light-sensitive silver salts, produced prints with exceptiona...
About the Artist
Carleton E. Watkins · 1829–1916
Carleton E. Watkins (1829–1916), one of America's pioneering landscape photographers, was born on November 11, 1829, in Oneonta, New York, the eldest of eight children to carpenter John Watkins and innkeeper Julia. Drawn by the Gold Rush, he arrived in San Francisco in 1851 at age 22 alongside childhood friend Collis Huntington, who later became a railroad tycoon. Initially working as a carpenter ...