?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE (1830-1904) Pi-Wi-Ack, Valley of the Yosemite, Shower of Stars, Vernal Fall, 400 feet tall. Mammoth albumen print, the image measuring 16⅝x21⅛ inches (42.2x53.7 cm.), flush mounted, with the partial title and notation "No. 28" in ink on mount verso. 1872
Provenance: From the Collection of Dr. James and Debra Pearl
Muybridge first photographed in the Yosemite Valley in 1867, when he produced over 250 views in whole-plate and stereoscopic formats. Before embarking on a second expedition in the summer of 1872, he advertised for subscribers to contribute towards the cost of the new series. Subscribers, one of whom was the eminent landscape artist A. Bierstadt, could choose forty images from the series for 100 dollars. Muybridge produced over 500 negatives between June and November 1872 in various formats. The list, produced in April 1873 by his new publishers, Bradley & Rulofson, announced fifty views 17x21 inches from his mammoth 20x24 inch negatives.
These impressive views immediately attracted national and international acclaim and Muybridge was awarded the Vilenna Medal in 1874. Despite this attention it seems that far fewer prints survived than those of his competitor Carleton E. Watkins.
During the 1870s the photographers Henry W. Bradley (1813-1891) and William H. Rulofson (1826-1878), who together operated a San Francisco photography studio, published a series of Eadweard Muybridge's views of Yosemite. Their inventory number for this image was 28.
