Monolith, The Face of Half Dome

1927

Ansel Adams

Artist, American, 1902 - 1984

A tall, almost sheer rock formation soaring high above snow-capped rocky peaks nearly fills this vertical black and white photograph. The rock formation is rounded along the top and continues off the top right corner and right edge of the composition. A jagged ridge dips down like a narrow wing to our left, and tall trees on the mountain peaks are made minuscule by the formation, the surface of which is textured with long vertical streaks. The sky in the upper left corner of the photograph is steely gray behind a thin ridge of white snow along the curved top of the formation.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print (parmelian print)

  • Credit Line

    Harvey S. Shipley Miller Fund

  • Dimensions

    image: 20.3 x 15.2 cm (8 x 6 in.)
    sheet: 30.2 x 25.1 cm (11 7/8 x 9 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    2004.85.2


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Robert Mann Gallery, New York, NY); NGA purchase, 2004.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2009

  • In the Darkroom: Photographic Processes Before the Digital Age, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2009 - 2010, unnumbered catalogue.

2015

  • In Light of the Past: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Collecting Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, May 3 – July 26, 2015

Inscriptions

printed, lower center: MONOLITH, THE FACE OF HALF DOME

Wikidata ID

Q64144943


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