Ansel Adams

mural-sized, mounted at corners only, framed, an 'Ansel Adams, 181 Van Ess Way, Carmel, California, 93923' studio label, with typed title, date, and 'Property of Michael Adams & Anne Adams Helms,' on the reverse, circa 1942, probably printed in the 1960s

Other prints of this image:

Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall, This is The American Earth (San Francisco, 1960), p. vi

Andrea G. Stillman, Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs (Boston, 2007), p. 216

Andrea G. Stillman and William A. Turnage, eds., Ansel Adams, Our National Parks (Boston, 1992), p. 37

James Alinder and John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams: Classic Images (Boston, 1985), pl. 49

Although it has not been viewed out of its frame, this impressive unmounted mural-sized print appears to be in generally excellent condition. This commanding print is remarkable for its impressive print quality, with a high level of depth and detail. A wide range of tones further distinguishes this print from smaller, later prints, which tend to be darker. This print has recently undergone conservation to address some minor condition issues. A treatment report is available from the Photographs department upon request.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Leaves, Mount Rainier National Park, was made when the photographer traveled across the American West and Southwest in 1941 and 1942.  The trip combined a commercial job for the U. S. Potash Company, an assignment from the Department of the Interior, and Adams's own personal work.  This combination of projects was perfect for Adams, who was accompanied on parts of the trip by his son Michael and the photographer Cedric Wright.  It was during these months that some of Adams's most famous images were made, including Moonrise, Hernandez, and the Tetons and Snake River.

Adams was a fervent proponent of the concept of the national park.  An ardent conservationist, and a believer in the healing power of the wilderness, Adams used photography throughout his career to persuade others of his point of view.  In 1936, he was delighted to meet Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Department of the Interior, who later purchased from him a Japanese-style folding screen with Adams's Leaves, Mills College, for his office at the Department.  His encounters with Adams inspired the Secretary to consider photographic murals for the new Interior building's walls, and in August of 1941, Ickes offered Adams a job. Pleased with the chance to put more photographs in front of those deciding the use of America's open spaces, Adams leapt at the opportunity.

With the increasing pressures of World War II, however, the mural project's funding came to an end in 1942, and the photographs were never used.  This did not deter Adams.  In 1950, Virginia Best Adams and Houghton Mifflin published a volume of Adams's photographs—My Camera in the National Parks—to showcase some of the treasures of the American back country.  My Camera in the National Parks was prefaced by a moving essay by the photographer entitled 'The Meaning of the National Parks.'  The photograph offered here, Leaves, Mount Rainier, exemplifies a passage from that essay: 'In contemplation of the eternal incarnations of the spirit which vibrate in every mountain, leaf, and particle of earth, in every cloud, stone, and flash of sunlight, we make new discoveries on the planes of ethical and humane discernment, approaching the new society at last, proportionate to nature.'

Mount Rainier National Park is one of the oldest parks in America's National Parks system.  It was established as a park in 1899, one of the earliest such parks in the United States.  Located in the northwest quadrant of Washington, it encompasses a number of climatic zones, and accordingly, a variety of vegetation.  There are mountains, glaciers, subalpine meadows, old growth forest, waterfalls, and a rainforest within the Park's boundaries.   A letter of 11 June 1942 to Nancy Newhall, written by Adams on a train en route to Wyoming, relates with excitement his upcoming itinerary: after Billings, Montana, it was 'then to Yellowstone, then to Glacier, then on west to Rainier and Crater Lake ,' he wrote. 'Just passed an acre of blue lupine with snow peaks in the distance . . . It's almost too much' (An Autobiography, p. 277).  The photograph offered here was likely taken between the date of this letter in June and when Adams returned home in July of that year.

Leaves, Mount Rainier, is one in a long tradition of Adams's beautifully-composed, timeless studies of leaves, ferns, pine boughs, weathered bark, blossoms, and the like: still life arrangements composed by nature that were both spiritually inspiring and aesthetically complex.  These studies informed his work from the beginning: in his landmark exhibition at Stieglitz's American Place in 1936, there were Pine Cone and Eucalyptus Leaves; Pine Branches in Snow; Leaves, Mills College; and Grass and Water, Tuolumne Meadows.  Each of Adams's six portfolios contains one or more studies from this genre, among them the well-known Trailside, Juneau, Alaska, from Portfolio One, Dogwood Blossoms from Portfolio Three, and Leaf, Glacier Bay, from Portfolio Four.   Taken with a view camera, these natural still lifes continued in Adams's oeuvre into his Polaroid days; some were enlarged into mural-sized prints and Japanese-style folding screens, such as the one purchased by Harold Ickes mentioned above.   Of his close-ups made in Mount Rainier, Adams wrote, 'I was pleased with my quiet studies of leaves and ferns . . . photographic interpretations of nature in intimate contact with the world' (ibid., p. 277).