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Frederick Ferdinand Schafer Painting Catalog

Painting record FFSd0553

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[photo] [Indian encampment below Mount Hood 1]

Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 18 x 36 (46 x 91 cm)
Inscription: l/l "F Schafer" in the rounded sketch hand
Verso: stamped into the stretcher bars, "39". There is also a maker's mark stamped on the upper stretcher bar, but it is illegible in the photograph.
Provenance: In private collection, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, from c. 1978. Offered by Louisiana Auction Exchange, Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 04 June 1994, as lot 49 (not sold). Offered in 2008 by Stillwell House Antiques, Manalapan, New Jersey, by Withers Fine Art, Scottsdale, AZ, by Alfred de Simone, St. Charles, Illinois, and by M. S. Rau Antiques LLC, New Orleans.
Site: Not identified, but based on the profile of Mount Hood, somewhere northeast of the mountain, perhaps on the Washington side of the Columbia River.
Description: A half-dozen tepees stand beyond a clearing on the flat right bank of a river, with two mountain ranges, the more distant with a central peak, beyond. At the right edge, rugged cliffs loom up to be silhouetted against the sky. In the foreground are several figures, including an Indian woman carrying a child on her back and walking with a second child.
Note: 1. Although large, the painting appears to be a sketch rather than a finished studio painting. The minimal level of finish, the lack of detail in the intermediate mountain range, the typical sketch signature, and the lack of a verso title are all consistent with a conjecture that the painting is either a sketch or that it left the studio before it was finished. 2. The painting seems to be closely related to [Indian encampment below Mount Hood 2].
Legend: The 1978 owner is said to have reported that the painting's previous owner was a family that held it through several generations.
Identification: Assigned, descriptive title. An undated record including a barely-legible monochrome photograph, probably from the 1970s, appears in the files of the Garzoli Gallery, located at that time in San Francisco. Thanks to Alfred de Simone for making the connection with that record and with the 1994 auction record, which did not include an illustration. Over a period of several months in 2008 the painting was offered for sale by at least four galleries in different corners of the United States. Images from all four matched.
Other title(s): Indian camp (Garzoli Gallery record); Indians in the Mountains (Stillwell House Antiques sale)
In index(es): Title list, Indian encampments as primary subjects, Mount Hood, sketches

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Mar 10, 2024, 11:47 MDT Accessibility