Yosemite in nineteenth-century prints

Magazine Antiques, Nov, 1997 by Kate Nearpass Ogden

The largest of Bierstadt's Yosemite paintings, The Domes of the Yosemite,(13) was reproduced as the one of the largest of all Yosemite prints [ILLUSTRATION FOR PLATE V OMITTED]. Published in Dusseldorf, Germany, by Oeldruck von Breidenbach and Company, it represents a high point in the quality of Yosemite prints, with smoother and more subtle colors than most American chromolithographs of the period. It is the only print to show the view from the base of Upper Yosemite Fall. Like Bierstadt's earlier view it is not strictly true to nature but rather a subtle rearrangement of Yosemite's features, shifted slightly for maximum drama and visibility.

In the early 1870s Louis Prong and Company published at least two series of smaller chromolithographs devoted to California subjects. A set of about twelve was based on paintings by Robert D. Wilkie, who worked frequently for Prang [ILLUSTRATION FOR PLATE X OMITTED]. The views are chiefly of waterfalls or single rock formations and appear to have been based on quick oil sketches. It has been suggested that the sketches, in turn, were based on photographs by Carleton Emmons Watkins (1829-1916). Another possible source is the stereoscopic views by Martin Mason Hazeltine, which were sold in Boston by the photograph publisher John Soule (b. 1828) beginning in 1870.(14) A photographic source for Wilkie's sketches does seem likely since the artist is not known to have traveled to California.

Wilkie's chromolithographs have sometimes been considered the work of Thomas Hill, but an attribution to Wilkie is fairly certain. No artist was credited when Prang copyrighted six of the prints on February 28, 1872,(15) and because Hill was a well-known painter in Boston he would probably have been named if these were his views. Years later an auction catalogue of Prang's art collection listed a number of paintings by Wilkie, including "Seven California Views."(16)

Prang's other series of chromolithographs on California subjects is based on paintings by the eastern artist John Ross Key, a grandson of Francis Scott Key, the author of our national anthem.(17) Five in the series illustrate Yosemite [ILLUSTRATION FOR PLATE VII OMITTED] after originals that appear to have been simply and broadly painted. Two of these are vertical and relatively decorative depictions of waterfalls, while the other three are more panoramic. All of the Yosemite images include hunters, fishermen, or American Indians. Key visited California in 1869 and 1870 and painted many small studies on which he later based larger paintings and prints. Some of his California paintings were exhibited in Boston in October 1871 and January 1872,(18) apparently attracting Prang. It is unlikely that Key was commissioned by Prang since he does not appear to have visited Boston before his California trip. The dates 1872 and 1873 appear in the chromolithographs, suggesting that the artist supplied Prang with additional oils on which to base the prints.(19)

Three large prints of Yosemite issued in the 1870s and 1880s were based on paintings by Benjamin Champney (1817-1907), Andrew Melrose (1836-1901), and an unidentified artist working for the publishers Kurz and Allison of Chicago (frontispiece).(20) To some degree all three seem like aesthetic afterthoughts executed by lesser artists. The best painters had moved on to less hackneyed subjects.