El Capitan and Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite Valley (El Capitán y el salto “Bridalveil”, Valle de Yosemite)

Thomas Hill, American, born in England, 1829 - 1908

not dated

painting

oil on canvas

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John B. Mills, by exchange

1978.1

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American and Western American

Yes

North Wing, Second Floor, Western American Art Gallery

Thomas Hill first visited the Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains with photographer Carleton Watkins, whose mammoth-plate photographs were influential in its preservation as a National Park in 1890. Hill, who had moved to San Francisco in 1856, returned to the East Coast in 1866. He returned annually to spend his summers sketching Yosemite, where he maintained a studio on the grounds of the Wawona Hotel, near the famed Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia trees. Like Watkins, he was known for his Yosemite subjects. Especially popular were views of El Capitan, an impressive vertical rock formation.