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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0056

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[photo] Donner Lake, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California [4]
Photo credit: William K. Dick, 1971
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 14 x 22 in (36 x 56 cm)
Inscription: l/r "FSchafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand, initials conjoined in a monogram, underlined
Verso: Said to be "Donner Lake / Sierra Nevada, Mtn's / Cal."; a patent pending stamp on the stretcher with an 1886 date.
Provenance: In collection of Irma Engel Grabhorn (Mrs. Edwin Grabhorn), San Francisco; by gift in 1969 to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley.
Reproductions: William K. Dick photo #42 (color, 1971)
Site: Looking East over Donner Lake, California, with the snowsheds and cut of the Central Pacific Railroad on the right.
Description: A light blue round lake stands below in the center, with a point extending out into its right front edge. The view is down a green, glacial valley with sparse trees. In the foreground is a white formation of boulders just above a deep valley falling down to the left. High on the hillsides to the right is a railroad cut. Two hazy ridges stand in the distance beyond the lake; above them the sky is whitish-blue with a few clouds near the horizon. (From a color photograph.)
Note: A photograph by C. E. Watkins, published in 1880, is taken from virtually the same vantage point, but it is sufficiently different in detail that it does not appear to have been used as a model for the painting. [Naef, Weston J., Era of Exploration, figure 123].
In index(es): Title list, Lake Tahoe and environs

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility