Two Chinese women seated in a San Francisco studio

The objectphotographed as held, uncropped

Catalogue description

A woman sits in an upholstered chair in three-quarter view, a folded fan in her right hand, her left resting in her lap. She wears a heavily embroidered silk jacket with wide sleeves over patterned trousers, and her hair is dressed in the high winged style held with ornaments. A draped table, a tasselled cushion, a carved side table and an embroidered footstool furnish the set.

The card carries no caption for the sitter at all. Where the merchant in TFA-CA-107 is given a name, she is given none: the printed text on this mount is entirely the publisher’s address and an advertisement for views of Yosemite and the Big Trees. She appears in the catalogue as scenery.

The trade blurb is the most revealing text on the object. It lists what Watkins sold — Yosemite, Big Trees, Geysers, Mount Shasta — and this portrait sat in that same inventory, offered to the same buyer, as one more view of the Pacific Coast.

Transcriptiontext on the object, as printed

WATKINS’ PACIFIC COAST,
26 Montgomery St., opp. Lick House Entrance, San Francisco.
Photographic Views of California, Oregon, and the Pacific Coast generally—embracing Yosemite, Big Trees, Geysers, Mount Shasta, Mining City, etc., etc. Views made to order in any part of the State or Coast.

Historical context

Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916) was the most celebrated landscape photographer of the American West, whose Yosemite views influenced the campaign to protect the valley. His commercial operation also produced city and genre subjects. The 26 Montgomery Street address, opposite the Lick House, belongs to his Yosemite Art Gallery period before the financial failure that cost him his negatives in 1875-76.

What is not known

• The sitter is unidentified and cannot be identified from the object.
• Date range inferred from the 26 Montgomery Street address and mount style; no date is printed.
• Whether the sitter posed voluntarily, and on what terms, is not recoverable from the object.