PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF LUCIAN J. LEONE It has been said that Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley was among Ansel Adams' own favorites. Unlike much of his other work (or so we are inclined to think), it was not simply the photographer's response to the natural world before him, but rather a composition he had imagined before the elements so obligingly came together in Yosemite one winter's day in the early 1940s. Such anecdotal evidence helps to dispel the misconception that Adams was a mere, if superb, technician and points to the passionate idealist who '...like all poets, transported us into a world that is vaster and more beautiful than our own, where reality echoed the dream.' (Peter Bunnell, 'An Ascendant Vision', Ansel Adams 1902-1984, Friends of Photography, p. 56) Lot 224 was a gift from the photographer to Lucian Leone, then a young exhibition designer, as a token of gratitude for his help with the installation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 1974 exhibition, Photographs by Ansel Adams. The lot is accompanied by a charming letter (illustrated) from Adams to this effect, in which he states, 'This exhibition was a high point in my life as a creative photographer, and I am glad that we were able to share the experience.'

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)

Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley, California, c. 1942

Details

ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984)
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley, California, c. 1942
gelatin silver print, printed c. 1974
signed in pencil (on the mount); title in ink and 'Carmel' credit stamp (on the reverse of the mount); accompanied by a typed letter, dated July 19, 1974, signed by Adams in ink
15½ x 19 1/8in. (39.3 x 48.5cm.)

Provenance

From the artist;
to the present owner

Literature

Szarkowski, Ansel Adams at 100, Little Brown & Co., 2001, pl. 89

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