| Date: | probably undated |
| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 12 x 24 in (30 x 61 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "FSchafer", fraktur hand, initials conjoined, underlined |
| Verso: | said to be "Donner Lake/Sierra Nevada, Mtn's/Cal." |
| Provenance: | said to be in collection of Robert B. Honeyman and thence to The Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, in 1971; not currently located. |
| 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. [Weston J. Naef, Era of Exploration, figure 123]. |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0042.jpg)