VITTORIO SELLA. Cretes Des Ecrins, Aiguilles Des Arias and De La Musette. From the summit of Les Ecrins at 13,457 feet, c. 1879-1892, Sella number AI 515. 11.3x15.4" collodion print, printed c. 1893, flush mounted on thin board, mounted on 12.1x15.9" heavy gray board. Inscribed in ink on mount recto: Alps Cretes des Ecrins, Aiguilles Des Arias and de la Musette (515) from the summit of Les Ecrins at 13457 feet. / AI. Print recto embossed with artist's credit stamp in bottom right corner. Inscribed in blue pencil on mount verso: 515/AI.

A dramatic view of one of a party of climbers at the summit.

Vittorio Sella lived during the Golden Age of European mountain exploration when many peaks were being scaled for the first time. Prior to his era, mountains were mostly regarded as dangerous obstacles to be crossed, haunted by evil spirits. The early nineteenth century saw a dramatic shift in people's perception of mountains, heralded by the Romantic poets who lauded them as "palaces of nature" that embodied the eternal. To Wordsworth and others of the Romantic era, alpine pinnacles became symbols of the heights to which the imagination of man could aspire, toward the unattainable goals of understanding infinity, eternity, and the vastness of God. It was no accident that the beginnings of mountaineering as a sport coincided with the recognition that mountains were, in fact, beautiful. And the development of photography coincided with that very moment in the history of natural philosophy which has been called the "era of moralized mountaineering". This ushered in a sudden interest in landscape and natural scenery, along with poetry, painting, photography, and the art of travel as people sought out the heightened emotions brought about by a full experience of Nature.

Sella worked in all four seasons and under the most difficult circumstances, documenting the highest regions of the earth with extraordinary artistry. Ansel Adams paid tribute to Sella's greatness in a 1946 article for the Sierra Club Bulletin when he wrote, "with Sella's sensitive insight and response the magnificence of mountains is distilled into a high order of expression".

Good: Moderate wear and abrasions to emulsion dirt, some light marks along top edge of print; a small spot on lower L quadrant; small watermark on middle of print; small bubble under print middle R and lower L. Mount dirty with corner and edge wear.