| Date: | said to be c. 1895 |
| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 22 x 16.5 in (56 x 42 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "F. Schafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand |
| Provenance: | With Hunter Gallery, San Francisco, 1975; With Kerwin Galleries, Burlingame, 1976; With Rob Kral Fine Arts, Oakland, California; With WIM Fine Arts, Oakland, California; with Stewart Galleries, Palm Springs, California. |
| Exhibited: | Early California and other Old American Paintings, Burlingame, California, 1976 |
| Reproductions: | Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #21 (color, 1975); William K. Dick photo #156 (color, 1975); WIM Fine Arts photo #4681 (color) |
| Citations: | Inventory of American Paintings… record 71068483, 1976 exhibition list |
| Description: | A broadleaf forest interior fills the canvas; there is neither sky nor horizon, though a bright area visible through the branches in the upper left suggests haze or mist. Two very large white-trunked trees with patches of dark green moss appear on the right, two smaller trees on the left, and a fallen tree in the left foreground. A doe and fawn stand at alert in a grassy clearing in the center, beside a stream, which emerges in the lower center of the painting and runs forward to the right front over a small rapid and along brownish banks. The forest canopy is dark green, but there are yellow and orange leaves of Autumn below. The grassy foreground is dotted with wildflowers. (From a color photograph.) |
| Identification: | The descriptive title is from the Inventory of American Paintings listing, provided by the Hunter Gallery. The Early California and Western Art Research slide and the photograph by William K. Dick are both of a painting at the Hunter Gallery at about the same time that that gallery submitted the Inventory report, suggesting that that report is probably of the same painting. The Inventory entry gives the size as 22 x 16 in. The WIM Fine Arts gallery listing gives the size as 22.5 x 16 in. According to Walter Nelson-Rees, WIM Fine Arts acquired the painting from Rob Kral Fine Arts after it had been handled by Hunter Gallery and by Kerwin Galleries, and later sold it to Stewart Galleries. |
| Other title(s): | Doe and fawn in the forest (Early California and Western Art Research index); Startled deer (WIM Fine Arts gallery list); Yosemite scene with deer (Kerwin Galleries exhibition list) |
| In index(es): | Title list, Barbizon-style forest interiors |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0264.jpg)