I don't get to see many exhibitions so I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend the exhibition entitled Impressionists on the Water at The Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park is San Francisco today. I really enjoy this stuff by Monet and his contemporaries, and I was impressed by the sheer number of truly classic examples of the genre, but was astounded to find two amazing photographs---albumin silver prints actually--- by Gustave Le Gray! The Brig (1856) and The Breeching Wave (1857)
I'm no expert on albumin silver, nor the pictorial genre but it struck me that what I was seeing this afternoon, that whatever it was, was done right! Incredibly beautiful yet intriguingly so. How the sun light was captured glowing on the water is memorable.
The exhibition is comprised of painting and drawings and etchings and lithography with a few wooden models of the watercraft of the time, but only two photographs. It is certainly well worth seeing even without the photographs, it really is, but the two Le Gray pieces were an unexpected, totally delightful surprise!

http://impressionists.famsf.org/

The exhibition runs through October 13th.