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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0340

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[photo] The Yosemite Valley, California [9]
Photo credit: Nancy Ferreira, Christopher Queen Galleries
Date: not dated, probably 1880-1886
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 30 x 20 in (76 x 51 cm)
Inscription: l/r "F Schafer S.F.", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand
Verso: "The Yosemite Valley, Cal."
Provenance: Sold 2 Jun 1987 by John Moran Auctioneers, Inc., Pasadena, California; sold 1 May 1998 by Christopher Queen Galleries, Duncans Mills, California; to collection of Steven Harrison and John D. Ibson, Claremont, California, 1 May 1998.
Reproductions: Christopher Queen Galleries photograph (color)
Citations: Christopher Queen Galleries record 287.
Site: View East into Yosemite Valley, California, from atop the Topinemete bluffs along the old Mariposa trail, probably at Inspiration point, with Bridalveil Fall below on the right, El Capitan high on the left, and Half-dome on the horizon in the center.
Description: A man on horseback carries a pole or lance, while a women with a white scarf walks beside, along a road leading away from the viewer, into the valley below. The sun, off the canvas to the right, brightens the patch of trail around the figures, and the rider casts a shadow as he approaches a bright boulder at the right of the trail. The foreground is a grassy, sloping clearing; on the right lies the trunk of a dead tree. Below and beyond the figures the trail enters a dark green forest; the other side of the valley is much more sparsely treed. Beyond that the much larger valley itself is bright but hazily indistinct; the sky is baby blue with clouds below. (From the painting, 10 January 1990, at the Christopher Queen Galleries.)
Note: The initials "S.F." following the signature suggest that the painting was executed during the period 1880-1886, when Schafer had a studio in San Francisco.
In index(es): Title list, Yosemite Valley--classic view

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility