Henry P. Bosse (1844-1893); 'Foot of Island 50' (from 'Views on the Mississippi River');

Henry P. Bosse (1844-1893) 'Foot of Island 50' (from 'Views on the Mississippi River'), 1889 Cyanotype; titled, dated, and numbered '79A' in a calligraphic hand in ink in the margin. 10 3/8 x 13 in. (26.4 x 33 cm.) sheet 14 1/2 x 17 1/4 in. (36.8 x 43.8 cm.) Footnotes: Provenance Major Alexander Mackenzie (1844-1921), U.S. Army Chief of Engineers Thence by descent Simon Lowinsky Gallery, San Francisco Acquired from the above by the present owner Note In 1874 Henry Bosse began working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Chicago and was soon sent to the River and Harbor Improvement Office in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was subsequently transferred to the Corps' Rock Island District, where he worked under Maj. Alexander Mackenzie to map, survey, and photograph the Mississippi River from the Falls of St. Anthony in Minneapolis to its intersection with the Illinois River north of St. Louis. To document his work along the Mississippi River, Bosse eventually compiled several albums of cyanotypes - each printed from his large format glass-plate negatives. He gave the albums to fellow members of the Corps, including Maj. Mackenzie, who went on to become its Chief of Engineers from 1904 to 1908. In 1990 Mackenzie's album was sold at Sotheby's New York, after which it was disassembled so that the individual prints could be sold privately. According to the inscription on the present work, this cyanotype is believed to have been included in Mackenzie's album. Bosse's cyanotypes rarely come to auction. This print is a rare, vibrant example of the cyanotype process used to capture the expanding American landscape of the nineteenth century. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing