Artists have been drawn to capture the magnificence of Yosemite since humans first set foot on the land, from the Native Californian basketweavers to the plein air artists of today. They paint the grandeur of the massive granite cliffs and thundering waterfalls as well as the constantly shifting incandescence of this graceful land. In this section, we attempt to provide a perspective on the artist’s eye, to see what they see.
Photographer’s Note: To photograph the artists’ view for some of these featured paintings, it required lengthy and rugged hikes, carrying only a camera and tripod. Imagine doing a similar hike carrying a canvas, easel, and painting supplies, dealing with wind, blowing dust, and insects.
Click and drag the circle at the center of the photos left and right to compare the then and now images.
Left image
Ayres captured this view of Bridalveil Fall for Illustrated California Magazine.
Credit: Artist: Thomas Ayres
Right image
Bridalveil Fall and Cathedral Rocks on a spring afternoon.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Thomas Ayres: Cascade of the Rainbow, 1855
Self-taught draftsman and sketch artist Thomas Ayres came to California during the Gold Rush from his home in Woodbridge, New Jersey. He joined James Hutchings on his 1855 tour of Yosemite Valley. Hutchings needed backup evidence of his wonderous claims about the Valley as published in Illustrated California Magazine. Ayres sketches were also presented by California Senator John Conness to Congress and President Lincoln, leading to the Yosemite Grant Act in 1864. Ayres died in 1858 on a ship that sank in a storm off the coast of San Francisco.
Left image
Bierstadt's stylized perspective of Yosemite Falls and Half Dome.
Credit: Artist: Albert Bierstadt
Right image
View from the Yosemite Falls Trail east towards Half Dome.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Albert Bierstadt: The Domes of the Yosemite, 1867
Albert Bierstadt, originally from Solingen, Germany, camped in Yosemite Valley in August of 1863 accompanied by journalist and explorer Fitz High Ludlow, best known for his book, The Hasheesh Eater. Bierstadt made a number of studies during his trip but returned to his New York studio to paint the large canvases. His paintings helped Americans from all over the country become aware of the natural wonder of Yosemite. They inspired Americans to protect Yosemite from the destruction that plagued such places as Niagara Falls. He died in 1902 in New York City.
Bierstadt’s Domes of the Yosemite was his largest canvas at 9.5 feet high and 15 feet long. Some critics considered it to be vulgar, hardly reflective of the actual nature. Mark Twain described it as “altogether too gorgeous … more the atmosphere of Kingdom Come than of California.”
Photographer’s Note: The depiction of waterfalls to the left of the painting is one example of the painting’s exaggeration of nature. To achieve the angle of the painting's perspective, Bierstadt moved the base of Yosemite Falls quite a bit to the south of its actual location. Artist's license.
Left image
Hetch Hetchy Valley as painted by Albert Bierstadt in 1874.
Credit: Artist: Albert Bierstadt
Right image
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir has filled in the valley.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2021
Albert Bierstadt Hetch Hetchy Valley 1874
Early in his career, Bierstadt travelled with Clarence King and the U.S. Geological Survey throughout the West. The Transcontinental Railroad had just opened in 1869 and the surveyors intended to help reveal to Easterners what the West looked like. His paintings captured the imagination of the American public. The East was a place of conflict while the West came to be seen as an Eden, a place of peace and escape. Paintings like Hetch Hetchy Valley helped fuel Manifest Destiny and westward migration.
Left image
A Native American encampment on the edge of Mirror Lake.
Credit: Artist: Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming
Right image
Mirror Lake is completely dry in this late summer photo.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Constance Gordon-Cumming: Indian Life at Mirror Lake, 1878
Lady Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming, born in 1837, was a travel writer and landscape painter from a wealthy Scottish family. She taught herself how to paint, helped by prominent artists visiting her home. She traveled the world, often alone, to paint and write about her journeys. She arrived in Yosemite in 1878 after traveling from Tahiti to San Francisco. She intended to visit for three days, but ended up staying for three months, holding the first art exhibit in Yosemite Valley. Of her visit to Yosemite, Gordon-Cumming wrote, "I for one have wandered far enough over the wide world to know a unique glory when I am blessed by the sight of one . . ."
Left image
Zorach's stylized portrait of Bridalveil Fall.
Credit: Artist: William Zorach; Courtesy of Fresno Art Center.
Right image
Bridalveil Fall spills out of a glacially formed valley.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
William Zorach: Bridalveil Fall in Yosemite Valley, 1920
Lithuanian-born, William Zora, his wife Marguerite, and their two small children, spent the summer of 1920 in Yosemite, hiking, sketching, and painting the landscape. Inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essays about nature, William’s watercolors were Fauvist in style, emphasizing bright colors and simplified forms. “There are things one does for the pure love of form and color, in the easy abandonment to the moods and the fancies of the moment. These are my watercolors.”
Left image
Obata's rustic image of a rugged mountain lake.
Credit: Artist: Chiura Obata, Courtesy of the De Young Museum, San Francisco
Right image
Mid-summer and the snows have melted.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2021
Chiura Obata: Lake Basin in High Sierra 1930
Chiura Obata was a Japanese American and Bay Area artist who found inspiration in Dai Shizen, or “Great Nature”. During a 1927 trip to Yosemite, he made 100 works in six weeks, describing the experience as "the greatest harvest for my whole life and future in painting". He founded the East West Art Society in 1921 and taught from 1932-1954 at UC Berkeley.
While painting Lake Basin in the High Sierra (1930), Obata heard music, which was actually the sound of snow melting on the opposite side of the lake. The blue paint is ground lapis lazuli.
Left image
A full moon rises over Tenaya Lake.
Credit: Artist: Tom Killion; Courtesy of the Artist.
Right image
The view east of Tenaya Lake on a late summer afternoon.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2020
Tom Killion: Lake Tenaya, 2004
Tom Killion, born and raised in Mill Valley, California, has traveled the world creating landscape prints from linoleum and wood. He studied History at UC Santa Cruz, and then received a doctorate in African History at Stanford University. He administrated a medical relief program for Ethiopian refugees in Sudan, taught African History at Bowdoin College, and was a Fulbright scholar at Asmara University in Eritrea. He has published several books of his prints in collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning poet, Gary Snyder.
Left image
A colorful depiction of El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall from Valley View.
Credit: Artist: Phyllis Shafer; Courtesy of the Artist.
Right image
Valley View's iconic perspective.
Credit: NPS Photo / Ted Barone 2019
Phyllis Shafer: Autumn in Yosemite Valley, 2005
Nevada artist Phyllis Shafer, a plein air landscape painter, is inspired by a “kind of transcendental essence at the heart of all natural forms and objects.” She paints directly from the natural environment and is particularly intrigued by the juxtaposition of high altitude vistas with “the intimate microcosm of the flora and fauna.”
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