Cindy Stokes, Untitled;
silver gelatin print, selenium toned, 61/2 x 9
Cindy Stokes, Untitled; silver gelatin print, selenium toned, 61/2 x 9
The History of Art in Yosemite
from an essay by Jack Gyer
Magnificent scenery, rich and varied natural resources and an awesome reflection of time are the factors that combine to embody Yosemite National Park’s compelling attraction.
Native Americans were the residents of Yosemite Valley for thousands of years, living within the confines of and as a part of the natural scene. European Americans first caught glimpses of its wonders in 1835 and 1849. Two years later, a punitive expedition against the natives resulted in members of the Mariposa Battalion entering the Valley. As a result, tales of its magnificent beauty were spread throughout the west.
Mid-19th century America was vibrant with the burgeoning industrial revolution, exploration, and development toward the west, a public sense of independence from European domination, and a popularity of art and painting that exceeded that of any period in the country’s history. Ordinary citizens painted or collected art with enthusiasm and. “To be a painter was not then in the United States financially Hazardous,” (James Thomas Flexner). The development of instantaneous photography was eagerly adopted and the resulting images were generally regarded as an art form. Hans Huth in Nature and the American and Yosemite: The Story of an Idea, traced the influences that resulted, in 1864, in the creation of the world’s first public natural preserve, Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. He credits to a great extent the impact of paintings and photographs on a Congress then deeply involved in the Civil War.
San Francisco publisher James Hutchings organized the first tourist party to Yosemite in 1855 to verify the extravagant stories about Yosemite’s sublime beauty and, coincidently, to obtain material and drawings for his new California Illustrated Magazine. For this purpose, Hutchings retained Thomas Ayres, a San Francisco artist, to accompany the expedition. A first view of the Incomparable Valley is always an emotional experience and Hutchings recorded it as, “...sublimity materialized in granite and beauty crystallized into object form.” Ayres made several sketches, five of which were reproduced in California Illustrated and as lithographs. The following year, Ayres returned to Yosemite accompanied by photographer Charles Weed. Ayres sketched and Weed made the first photographs of the Valley.
Entrepreneurs quickly exploited these first scenes of Yosemite with decided impact on the art community. Some hardy artists and adventurous amateurs undertook the difficult trip to see for themselves and be inspired, while others relied on pictures and their imagination to turn out potboilers for the public. Among the earliest painters of Yosemite were Antoine Claveau, Frederick Butman, John Madison Alden and William Smith Jewett. In 1863, Albert Bierstadt, Virgil Williams, Enoch Wood Perry and journalist Fitz Hugh Ludlow set out on a pilgrimage of curiosity and were amply rewarded by the drama of their first sight of the Valley. Ludlow comments on the artists’ experiences, “...during their seven weeks in the Valley, they learned more and gained greater material for future triumphs than they had gathered in all their lives before at the feet of the greatest masters...”
Thomas Hill visited Yosemite in 1862 and returned regularly in the following years, finally settling in the park for the summer months. His production of paintings was prodigious. Other artists who painted Yosemite include William Keith, Charles Dorman Robinson, William Hahn, Gilbert Davis Munger, Constance Gordon Cumming, Thomas Moran, Fortunato Arriola, Edwin Deakin, Jules Tavernier, Chris Jorgensen, Gunnar Widforss, Harry Best, William and Marguerite Zorach, Wayne Theibaud, and many others of this century.
