COLLECTION NAME:
The AMICA Library
Record
AMICA ID:
CMA_.1990.133
AMICA Library Year:
1998
Object Type:
Photographs
Creator Name:
Muybridge, Eadweard
Creator Name:
Muybridge, Eadweard
Creator Nationality:
North American; American
Creator Role:
Artist
Creator Dates/Places:
1830 - 1904
Biography:
Eadweard J. Muybridge (Edward James Muggeridge) American, b. England, 1830-1904Around 1852 Edward James Muggeridge, born in Kingston-on-Thames in Surrey, immigrated to California and by 1856 had established himself in the book business in San Francisco. He learned the art of photography in 1867, possibly from his friend Silas Selleck. Soon after, he emerged as the "artist-photographer" Eadweard Muybridge. Also known as "Helios," the proprietor of a mobile photo wagon called the Flying Studio, he became associated with Selleck's cosmopolitan gallery. Muybridge was one of the best early western landscape photographers. His work included a coastal survey for the U.S. government, as well as topographical, landscape, and portrait photographs made from Alaska to Central America. His large wet plate views of Yosemite rank with those of Carleton Watkins as among the finest ever taken, and his multiprint panoramas of San Francisco are highly prized. In 1872 Muybridge began the experimental study that occupied himfor the remainder of his life and for which he is best known. It stemmed from a commission by former California governor Leland Stanford, Jr., who asked him to capture photographically the movement of a galloping horse. Muybridge quickly became a renownedlecturer and authority on the photography of motion, developing one of the first camera shutters in 1869 and the zoogyroscope (an early machine for projecting pictures that appeared to move) in 1880. His work contributed to the development of the motionpicture. Muybridge continued his investigations for three years at the University of Pennsylvania (1883-86) and in 1887 published the result of some 15 years of accumulated research in the 11 volumes of his immense study, Animal Locomotion, which consistedof 19,347 negatives. Muybridge's own stride was broken temporarily by his trial in 1874 for the murder of his wife's lover, a charge that he acknowledged but of which he was acquitted. T.W.F.
Gender:
M
Creator Birth Place:
Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, England
Creator Death Place:
Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, England
Creator Name-CRT:
Eadweard J. Muybridge
Title:
Valley of the Yosemite, from Rocky Ford
Title Type:
Primary
View:
Full View
Creation Date:
1872
Creation Start Date:
1872
Creation End Date:
1872
Materials and Techniques:
albumen print from wet collodion negative
Classification Term:
Photography
Dimensions:
Image: 43.1cm x 54.8cm
AMICA Contributor:
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Owner Location:
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
ID Number:
1990.133
Credit Line:
John L. Severance Fund
Rights:
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Image: Copyright The Cleveland Museum of Art
Context:
Early in a long, creative career, distinguished by landmark studies of animal and human motion, Eadweard J. Muybridge created a remarkable group of photographs of the Yosemite Valley in California. During his second journey there, lasting from June through November 1872, he made his most significant and extensive body of landscape photographs, many taken with mammoth glass plate negatives measuring 20 x 24 inches. This image of the valley from Rocky Ford is one of his most luminous and sublime views. Taken in early morning light, this carefully framed and dramatically lit photograph reveals Muybridge's interest in atmospheric conditions, shimmering reflections, and the movement of water.
Related Image Identifier Link:
CMA_.1990.133.tif
Initial Sort:
Muybridge, Eadweard
Valley of the Yosemite, from Rocky Ford
