Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove

1861

Carleton E. Watkins

Artist, American, 1829 - 1916

A thick-trunked tree towers over us in an old-growth forest in this photograph, which is printed in shades of gray on cream white. From close to the ground, we look up at the central tree, which has thick but stubby branches extending like bristles on scrub brush from its central trunk. Just to the left is an upright but dead, broken trunk. Its hollow interior faces us. The canopy of the central tree is outlined against the blank sky, and other evergreens and thinner-trunked trees reach into the sky around the central tree.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

Article:  Portraits of Trees, a Favorite Subject of Artists

Many artists have painted, photographed, and drawn nature’s magnificent sculptures.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

David and Mary Robinson, Sausalito, CA; gift to NGA, 1995.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1995

  • The First Century of Photography: New Acquisitions, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995.

Bibliography

1989

  • Carleton E. Watkins: Photographs, 1861-1874. Exh. cat. Fraenkel Gallery. San Francisco, 1989, pl. 63.

1993

  • Hambourg, Maria Morris. The Waking Dream: Photography's First Century. Selections from the Gilman Paper Company Collection. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993, no. 156, p.327.

Inscriptions

all on mount: lower left in black ink: nc110; lower right in black ink: C.E. Watkins; lower center in graphite: Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove 33 ft Diam

Wikidata ID

Q64145669

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