< Tour Previous

Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0239

Tour next >

[photo] Olympic Mountains, British Columbia
Photo credit: William K. Dick, 1971
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 12 x 24 in (30 x 61 cm)
Inscription: l/l "F. Schafer"
Verso: "Olympic Mtns, B.C."
Provenance: With Continental Art Gallery, San Francisco; to private collection, San Francisco, January 1971.
Reproductions: William K. Dick photo #18 (color, 1971)
Site: The Olympic Mountains are in Washington state, not British Columbia; that part of the boundary was resolved in 1846, before Schafer came to the area. Presumably the title intends to convey that the viewpoint is in British Columbia, although they are about three times as large as they should be from that distance.
Description: A snow-covered mountain ridge extends across the background of the painting, above a slightly nearer purplish ridge on the left, and two nearer brownish ridges on the right. Nearer, a lake or wide river fills the center and right front, loosely reflecting the background ranges. It is early morning or late afternoon, with the sun coming from the elft, bathing the background, middle distance, and right foreground with a warm glow. In the middle distance, a canoe stands at the left bank of the river, containing two figures, one of which is standing, the other sitting, Nearer, the left bank is shadowed; there are four large, dark, conifers, grass, boulders at the water's edge, and a dead tree lying on one of the boulders. The right bank is forested in shades of brown and yellow; a boulder in the water protects a point on the right, gravel-covered bank. (From the painting, 17 December 1989.)
In index(es): Title list, miscellaneous other well-known landmarks, Pacific northwest coast and Victoria, British Columbia, sketches

Title list
Other lists
Help About the Artist Copyright Notice Schafer Catalog Home Page
Comments, corrections, or questions: Saltzer@mit.edu
Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility