ANSEL ADAMS (1902–1984)

White House Ruin, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, 1941

Details

ANSEL ADAMS (1902–1984)
White House Ruin, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, 1941
gelatin silver print, mounted on board, printed 1973–1977
signed in pencil (mount, recto); stamped photographer's Carmel credit [BMFA 11] with title and date '1942' in ink (mount, verso)
image/sheet: 13 3/4 x 10 in. (34.9 x 25.3 cm.)
mount: 18 x 14 in. (45.6 x 35.6 cm.)

Provenance

Christie's, New York, April 4, 2000, lot 224;
acquired from the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

Lawrence Clark Powell, Photographs of the Southwest, New York Graphic Society, Boston, 1976, pl. 30 (variant).
Ansel Adams, Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1983, p. 129 (variant).
Ansel Adams, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography, New York Graphic Society, Boston, 1985, p. 220 (variant).
Andrea G. Stillman (ed.), Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2007, p. 165.
Andrea G. Stillman (ed.), Ansel Adams: In The National Parks: Photographs from America’s Wild Places, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2010, p. 33.
Karen E. Haas and Rebecca A. Senf, Ansel Adams: In The Lane Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2013, pl. 9, p. 24 (variant).

Lot Essay

Canyon de Chelly National Monument in northeast Arizona is an extraordinary experience, made more intense by the presence of its Navajo residents, who demonstrate that man can live with nature and sometimes enhance it. The Canyon de Chelly is geologically impressive. Its stone is largely solidified sand dunes, which accounts for the beautiful, flowing patterns revealed on the eroded cliffs.
—Ansel Adams

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