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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0110

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[photo] [Indian encampment in the Wasatch Range, Utah]

Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 30 x 48 in (76 x 122 cm)
Inscription: l/l "F. Schafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand
Provenance: Sold 28 October 1974 for $1400+10% by Sotheby's, Los Angeles, as lot 101 in sale 138. Offered by Wortsman Stewart Galleries, Inc., San Francisco, 1975. In collection of Diane and Sam Stewart, Salt Lake City; by gift to Springville Museum of Art, Springville, Utah by 2005.
Reproductions: Sotheby's 28 October 1974 sale catalog, Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #27 (color, 1975), Olpin, Robert S. et al., Painters of the Wasatch Mountains, page 32 (color), Springville Museum of Art web site image 0000002247_02, 2011.
Citations: Inventory of American Paintings… record 61515515
Site: The bright rock formation appears to be the geologic feature known as the Devil's Slide, in Weber Canyon, about 30 miles east of Ogden, Utah. The view is looking west across the Weber River.
Description: A brownish mountain is backed up by the silhouette of a black mountain, with The Devil's Slide on the left. Across a river that covers the center foreground is an Indian encampment in a clearing on the right bank. There are two tepees, each with campfires from which arise plumes of smoke. Two figures on horseback head toward the camp along the right bank, and a woman with a red robe and a child on foot follow the horses. Other figures sit around the tepees. Trees fill out the right middle distance. (From a color photograph.)
Note: Although there is much similarity in composition to the several Wasatch Mountain paintings titled with the words "Bear Lake" (see Wasatch Mountains) this painting depicts a river rather than a lake.
Identification: Descriptive title as appearing in the Sotheby's 1974 sale catalog. The Inventory of American Paintings entry cites the Sotheby's sale, but misspells Wasatch as Waustach, and the listing of the sale in Auction Prices of American Artists misspells it Wausatch. The Springville Museum of Art changes the word "Range" to "Mountains". The Early California and Western Art Research index uses the alternate title and identifies the painting with the offering at the Wortsman Stewart Galleries, Inc.. Each of the title sources is accompanied by a photograph of the same painting.
Other title(s): Indians camped in Wasatch Mts., Utah (Early California and Western Art Research index)
In index(es): Title list, Indian encampments as incidental subjects, Wasatch Mountains, paintings currently held in museums and public collections

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility