Photography by Edward C. Robison III
Yosemite Falls
As North America’s tallest waterfall, rising 2,425 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor, the physicality, size, and symbolic potential of Yosemite Falls presented a challenge for artists.
Thomas Hill, a San Francisco-based painter associated with the Hudson River School of landscape painting, chose a vertical composition to capture the grandness of the popular tourist site. He even included a small fisherman in the foreground to convey the scale of the scene. This is one of many paintings Hill created depicting scenes of the Yosemite Valley.
ArtistThomas Hill, 1829–1908
Date1884
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions60 1/4 x 42 1/4 x 2 3/16 in.
Signedl.l.: T. Hill / 1884
Mark(s)verso, on stretcher, paper stamp: No. 159 / Picture
verso, on stretcher, ink stamp: INVENTORY / OCT 1951
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2014.12
ClassificationPainting
Provenancepurchased by Charles H. Price [1931-2012], late 1970s; by descent to Private Collection, 2010; (Heather James Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA); purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2014
On ViewNo
This artwork's face covers about 2.4× the area of a standard movie poster.Drawn to the same scale.