Cypress and Fog, Pebble Beach, California
1967, printed 1979
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
overall: 32.6 x 25 cm (12 13/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Virginia B. Adams
Accession Number
1986.3.19
Art Historical Context
Ansel Adams’s *Cypress and Fog, Pebble Beach, California* captures the dramatic meeting of and sea along California’s central coast. Created in 1967 and printed twelve years later, the image Adams’s lifelong fascination with the American West’s natural beauty. The fog softens the rugged forms of the Monterey cypress trees, producing a quiet, almost ethereal mood that invites viewers to linger over the subtle play of light and shadow. As a gelatin silver print, the photograph demonstrates Adams’s mastery of tonal range and sharp detail. This traditional black-and-white medium allowed him to re...
About the Artist
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams, born on February 20, 1902, in San Francisco, California, grew up as the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman and astronomy enthusiast who tutored him at home, and Olive Bray, with whom he had a distant relationship. A hyperactive child prone to illness, Adams struggled in formal schooling and was educated by private tutors and his father until graduating from eighth gr...