Yosemite Exhibit At Yale University Art Gallery

Naturalist John Muir once called Yosemite National Park in California “the incomparable valley.” An exhibit up now at Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven takes off from that definition, exhibiting artworks and natural-history specimens exploring many artistic and physical aspects of that glorious nature preserve.

All the familiar images of the park can be seen in the exhibit: El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Fall, the Merced River, Glacier Point.

The centerpiece of the show is a glowing 1873 painting by Albert Bierstadt, which became the defining vision of the river canyon. In the work, spectators on horseback marvel at the u-shaped valley. Those back east who saw the Bierstadt work began flocking to Yosemite to experience the natural wonders themselves. Curator Mark Mitchell emphasized that the Bierstadt and other early artworks depicted Yosemite “before mass development and visitation changed the landscape.”

Before Bierstadt, several Currier & Ives prints showed inaccurate images of Yosemite, drawn by artists who had never been there but had read about it. Watercolors by James Madison Alden did the same, showing the Yosemite mountains as rows of triangular peaks.

Carleton Watkins traveled to Yosemite with his camera and brought back photographs that were shown to President Lincoln, who signed the Yosemite Grant in 1864, which preserved the Yosemite Valley in perpetuity. The Watkins photos “are the Yosemite Lincoln knew,” said Mitchell. “Language fails to encompass this landscape.”

Ansel Adams is the 20th century’s premiere chronicler of Yosemite, and several of his photographs are on display. Chunks of granite from the mountains, a long rod of wood taken from a 1,000-year-old redwood tree and leaves, acorns and seeds are seen, as are handicrafts made by members of the native Miwok tribe.

YOSEMITE: EXPLORING THE INCOMPARABLE VALLEY will be at Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. in New Haven, until Dec. 31. hartgallery.yale.edu.