| Date: | 1885 |
| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 24 x 16 in (61 x 41 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "FSchafer.85.", initials conjoined, fraktur hand, underlined |
| Provenance: | In collection of Carl Schafer Dentzel, Northridge, California, by 1975. In collection of Elisabeth-Waldo Dentzel, California, in 1989. |
| Exhibited: | Western Scene, Los Angeles, California, 1975 |
| Reproductions: | 1975 exhibition catalog, figure 52; Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #26 (color, 1975); Stephen Vincent et al., O California!, page 92, figure 39 (color) |
| Description: | A train with two engines stops at the exit of a showshed in a snowbound mountain pass while about a dozen figures stand in the snow around the engines, using shovels to clear the tracks. In the foreground is a clearing littered with fallen trees and a boulder, which is directly between the viewer and the engines. On the left is a hillside whose steep brownish slope is the only area without snow; it is topped with conifers, while a branchless tree leans toward the snowshed. The black smoke of the engines blends into an indistinct greenish-black conifer forest in the background. Areas of bright gold and red on the engines and on the workers' coats enliven the scene. (From a color photograph.) |
| Identification: | It seems likely that this elaborate title comes from an unreported verso inscription. This is the same scene as Winter in the Sierras on the Central Pacific Railroad but viewed from a vantage point slightly farther to the left. In that painting the boulder is more to the left, and the leaning tree is fully branched rather than leafless. |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0540.jpg)