The Silver Canvas - Daguerrotype Masterpieces (Art Photography Ebook)

T H E S I L V E R C A N V A S
PLATE 73
ROBERT H. VANCE
American (1825-1876)
Distant View of La Rancheria, California
1853-55
Half plate
84.XT.245
PLATE 74
ROBERT H. VANCE
American (1825-1876)
Street Scene in La Rancheria, California
1853-55
Half plate
84.XT.244
WHEN AN ASTONISHING DISPLAY of three hundred daguerreotype views of California by Robert H. Vance was exhibited in
New York City in 1851, he was immediately established as one of the nations most skillful daguerreotypists. A photographic
critic viewing the exhibition praised the beauty and detail of his work, saying, "On looking upon these pictures, one can
almost imagine himself among the hills and mines of California, grasping at the glittering gold that lies before him." u
These two images by Vance take us, too, into the California landscape the early prospectors encountered, although not into
a scene as picturesque as that conveyed by the Eastern reviewer. 12
Only a few miles from the fabled Sutter's Mill, where gold was discovered in 1849, this miners' camp sprawled along
La Rancheria Creek. 13 These two daguerreian views made by Vance, one from across the creek and the other close to the
principal buildings, give a comprehensive picture of what such gold rush settlements looked like. These two factual records
act to rectify the more common gold-mining daguerreotypes taken in the field that show a posed group of prospectors, at
least one of whom holds a hat filled with rocks painted yellow.
Both of the Vance views display the desolate mountainous area of California to which men had come hoping to
strike the one vein in the hillside, or the one spot on the river bed, that would make them rich. Scenes such as these give us
an idea of the surroundings in which they carried out their quest. The view from across the creek, in particular, exposes the
shabbiness of the buildings and records the bleakness of the landscape, where the few trees not cut down for lumber struggle
to survive in the gulch's thin mountain soil.
In contrast to this dreary natural setting, the street scene of La Rancheria appears more civilized, showing close-up
that a few buildings are made of clapboards and even painted. An almost festive air is given to the scene by the recently
painted and artistically conceived hotel signs that were displayed on tall poles, rather than protruding from the sides of the
building, like the more customary "GOOD STABELING" sign on the left.
Perhaps the spruced-up air of the camp reflects its importance in the region. A few years earlier, a gathering of
nearby miners was held in La Rancheria to decide how the quartz mining rights would be assigned on four creeks in the surrounding
area. This daguerreotype speaks, therefore, not just of the physical living conditions of these prospectors, but
of their early attempts to establish a kind of communal order. Such efforts were rare within what was basically a lawless civil
society. More common was the event that occurred in 1855, about the time these views were made, when the town was
invaded by a gang of Mexican robbers who made off with the contents of a safe and murdered six inhabitants. Captured a
few months later, the bandits were quickly hung, as frontier justice demanded.
These views of La Rancheria provide insight into the courage and strength it took for men to survive in this vigilante
society. At the fringe of the country's expansion, the ideals for a man's existence as a citizen of a democracy had yet to
be enforced. But even within this bleak outpost the art of the daguerreotypist was ably practiced by Robert Vance, whose
sensitive eye coupled the geometrical forms of the simple buildings with the rhythmical line of human figures into a balanced
composition of light and dark that many artists might envy.
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