The image shows a narrow canyon with towering rock walls on either side, viewed from a slightly elevated perspective. The horizon is obscured as the canyon continues into the distance, where the rocks rise steeply and enclose the view. The texture and details of the canyon walls are rugged and layered, creating strong vertical lines. The color palette is monochromatic in shades of sepia, emphasizing the contrast between the rocks and the water at the base of the chasm. Close to us, large flat rocks lead the viewer's gaze along the canyon. In the background, the canyon walls converge and are topped with a sparse growth of trees.
Read the visual description

The image shows a narrow canyon with towering rock walls on either side, viewed from a slightly elevated perspective. The horizon is obscured as the canyon continues into the distance, where the rocks rise steeply and enclose the view. The texture and details of the canyon walls are rugged and layered, creating strong vertical lines. The color palette is monochromatic in shades of sepia, emphasizing the contrast between the rocks and the water at the base of the chasm. Close to us, large flat rocks lead the viewer's gaze along the canyon. In the background, the canyon walls converge and are topped with a sparse growth of trees.

National Gallery of Art · Photograph

Ausable Chasm - Up the River from Table Rock

Seneca Ray Stoddard

Date
c. 1880
Medium
albumen silver print
Dimensions
image: 33.8 x 25.8 cm (13 5/16 x 10 3/16 in.) mount: 35.1 x 27.8 cm (13 13/16 x 10 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Accession number
2012.18.1
Credit line
Veverka Family Foundation Fund
Time span
1851 to 1875
Department
CPH

Subjects and terms

  • American
  • albumen silver print
  • Landscape
  • United States
  • landscape
  • Cliffs
  • Water
Provenance

Glens Falls Historical Society, Glens Falls, New York; (Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York); NGA purchase, 2012.

Inscription

signed by artist, lower right on image: S.R. Stoddard.; across bottom of image in letterpress: 60. Ausable Chasm - Up the River from Table Rock. S.R. Stoddard, Photographer, Glen's Falls.; on verso, by unknown hand, bottom center in graphite: PF 5350

NGA object ID 156226. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.