[Previous section: Schafer's background and training]

Travels of the artist

Note: The travels described in this section are also listed, in a briefer form, in the Chronology of events in Schafer's life.

The sites depicted in Schafer's paintings imply extensive travel. Although no record of his travels has come to light, between the locales he painted, newspaper articles mentioning his comings and goings, and advertisements of sales, we can reconstruct at least some of his itineraries. (This exercise requires assuming that he actually visited most of the places he painted, rather than relying on photographs or renderings of other artists. As will be seen, there is some evidence that this assumption is not always safe.)

The only traces of a presence as a painter in Europe before emigration to the United States that have been uncovered so far are four paintings titled as Swiss or Alpine mountain scenes and one with a verso title in German.note 1 The small number of identified European paintings is a bit puzzling, since Schafer emigrated to the United States at the age of 36. It could indicate that he began his career as an artist late, or perhaps just that he found no success in Europe.

In the Swiss Alps

On the Passaic River, New York

There is substantial evidence of work in the eastern United States. There are extant today more than 30 paintings of eastern forest landscapes with titles such as In the Adirondacks and Autumn on the Hackensack River, New York, suggesting that after establishing a base in San Francisco in 1876 he may have returned temporarily to the east coast. In the Mechanics' Institute Fourteenth Industrial Exhibition, in San Francisco in August 1879, three of the four paintings he exhibited were titled Catskill Mountain Scenery; at least one more, a White Mountain, New Hampshire, scene appeared in that exhibition the following year. Dwight Miller reports that in 1879 Schafer's wife and child joined him in San Francisco.note 2 That report suggests that Schafer may have made a trip east to pick them up during the summer. The timing of the Mechanics Institute exhibition supports that suggestion.

Schafer had studios in San Francisco from 1880 to 1886, and presumably in his Alameda home after that. Taken as a whole, his paintings strongly confirm a base in the San Francisco area; by far the majority are of northern California scenes, with nearly 50 views of Mount Shasta and 70 of Yosemite Valley heading the list. Scenes of Marin County, the coast around the Golden Gate and Monterey, and pastoral views of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys are also frequent subjects.

Mount Tamalpais from Ross Valley, California [2]

Evening on Castle Rock, Columbia River [1], 1884

After settling in northern California, Schafer apparently traveled quite a bit, especially throughout the Pacific northwest. Although reports of studios in both Portland and Seattle seem to be unverifiable,note 3 35-odd Oregon scenes and 15 other Pacific Northwest scenes confirm that he visited there. In the 1884 Mechanics' Institute Nineteenth Industrial Exhibition in San Francisco, for the first time there were paintings of Mount Hood and the Columbia River, and the painting at the left is a summer scene dated that same year. In addition, that exhibition contained several paintings of Mount Shasta and the upper Sacramento River. Finally, [Mountain sunrise (Lassen Peak)] is also dated 1884. Taken together, these events strongly suggest a trip by railroad from San Francisco to Portland and then up the lower Columbia River in the summer of 1884. Beyond that, 18 paintings have been found of scenes of Great Plains Indians, two of which have Montana in their titles, and the remainder, by appearance, from the same locale. There are four Colorado scenes, two Idaho scenes, an unverifiable report of a third,note 4 ten in Utah, one in Nevada, at least nine in British Columbia, and one in Alaska. The Alaska scene, one Idaho scene, and one Colorado scene are dated 1889, suggesting an extensive trip north and inland that year.

A scene of Salt Lake City apparently was painted around 1884, from the state of construction of the buildings in the picture,note 5 and Salt Lake City newspapers include accounts of visits in both 1886 and 1891, so there were several trips into the Great Basin.note 6 Presumably on one or another of those visits, Schafer painted a half-dozen pictures of a Wasatch mountain setting, presumably near Salt Lake City, that he identified in titles as Bear Lake. In January 1886, Schafer traveled to Los Angeles to sell paintings and to sketch local scenery. Newspapers reported his presence (and dismal sales) for at least two weeks, but a half-dozen paintings of southern California scenes, including the cityscape Chinatown, Los Angeles, 1886 and at least two paintings of Mount Baldy, west of Los Angeles, probably came out of this trip.note 7

Salt Lake City, Utah, Morning

View from Beacon Hill, Victoria, British Columbia

In September, 1891, Schafer turned up in Vancouver, British Columbia, to sell paintings, and reportedly with the intent to set up a teaching studio there.note 8 The paintings did not sell well, and apparently the plan for a teaching studio fell through, because in December of that same year a similar report appeared in Salt Lake City,note 9 where again the paintings did not sell well and again a plan for a teaching studio did not materialize. The unconfirmed reports mentioned earlier that Schafer had studios in Portland and Seattle may be based on similar events.

Nearly all Schafer landscapes are summer scenes, probably because the territories depicted were difficult to visit in the winter.^note 10 The address of Schafer's studio changed almost every year that he had a studio in the artists' quarter of San Francisco.^note 11 The yearly address changes, taken together with the evidence of travel and the predominance of summer scenes, suggests that he spent the summers from 1880 to 1891 traveling and sketching throughout the West, and rented available winter studios until he moved his studio into his home in 1887.

One must exercise some caution in assuming that a painting implies a visit: there are some fairly clear counter-examples. The jungle landscape [Scene in Guatemala] comes with a legend that it was painted as a memorial commission;note 12 the similar [Tropical sunset] and [Tropical] may have been painted in response to a demand, arising among pre-railroad Californians, for souvenirs of the Panama route that some of them had travelled from the eastern United States. The existence of a painting titled Mazatlan has led to speculation and, eventually, a myth that Schafer's original arrival in California was via Panama. Legends and myths about Schafer provides further details.

[Scene in Guatemala]

Chimney Rock, Hickory Nut Gap, by Harry Fenn

Chimney Rock, French Broad Region, West Carson

Also, landscape photography was a rapidly developing art at the time and several leading landscape photographers of the day made San Francisco a base for photographing many of the same grand vistas that Schafer painted.note 14 Landscape painters sometimes used these photographs as a supplement or even as a complete replacement for field sketches. Caution is thus required in deducing Schafer's travel patterns from the painting subjects alone. For example, Chimney Rock, French Broad Region, West Carson in North Carolina bears a striking resemblence to a wood engraving by Harry Fenn that appeared in the book Picturesque America. Since there is no other evidence that Schafer ever visited North Carolina, it seems safe to assume that this painting was done from the engraving. Similarly, [Mountain of the Holy Cross 2] appears to be a composite of a photograph of the mountain by William Henry Jackson and a widely circulated chromolithograph of a painting by Thomas Moran (which itself may have benefited from the photograph).note 15 Again it seems likely that this painting was done without visiting the actual site.

These sparse facts and reports leave the art historian with more questions than answers. Perhaps this brevity of history is a virtue, because it means that analysis of Schafer's work must be performed with reference only to the art itself. That analysis is the topic of the next section.

[Next section: Schafer's Artistic Style]

note 1: The five European paintings are In the Swiss Alps, Swiss landscape [1], [Swiss landscape 2], [Alpine scene], and Morgen im Walde (Morning in the woods [1]). There are also two unlocated titles which suggest European sites, Alpine glow and Sunset in the Swiss Alps

note 2: See page 48 of the notes for the exhibition California Landscape Painting, 1860-1885. Miller does not give a source for this report; it can probably be traced to the 1975 interview by William K. Dick of Schafer's grandson Frederick O. Hughes.

note 3: An undated note recording a telephone conversation with the donor in connection with the Seattle Art Museum's 1968 accession of a painting questionably attributed to Schafer and titled Mount Rainier at Sunset, reports that Schafer was listed as living in the James Street or Yesler Street area in 1900--1906, but according to William K. Dick the Seattle library did not find confirming information in the city directories of that period. The report of a Portland studio is based on a personal recollection of Franz R. Stenzel, who located someone who claimed to be Schafer's Portland landlady.

note 4: Franz Stenzel mentions Idaho as a locale appearing in verso inscriptions, on page 22 of the notes for the 1963 exhibition An Art Perspective of the Historic Pacific Northwest. Dr. Stenzel, in a 1990 telephone conversation, could not recall where he saw such paintings, but suggested that it was probably in Portland antique stores. All later references to Idaho paintings seem to be derived from Stenzel's catalog mention. Both of the Idaho paintings in this inventory have been in private collections located far from Portland since 1890, where it is unlikely that they would have been encountered by Dr. Stenzel.

note 5: According to the notes for the catalog of the 1985 exhibition Masterworks from the Collection of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

note 6: Salt Lake City Herald, June 11, 1886; (Salt Lake City) Daily Tribune, December 20, 1891, and December 29, 1891. William C. Seifrit, in a letter to William K. Dick, reports that related articles also appear in the (Salt Lake City) Daily Tribune, May 26, 1886, and the Ogden Standard, November 19, 1891.

note 7: "Fine Collection of Paintings", Los Angeles Times, January 31, 1886, with followup stories on February 13 and February 17.

note 8: A series of short notes in the Vancouver Daily World, September 1, 3, 7, and 11, 1891.

note 9: As reported in the (Salt Lake City) Daily Tribune, December 20, 1891.

note 10: Only eight paintings depicting snow have emerged, four of which are set in the Great Plains (e.g., [Indians traveling on horseback through the snow]). Two paintings, [After a snowstorm in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Summit Station, Central Pacific Railroad] and Winter in the Sierras on the Central Pacific Railroad, both appear to be winter scenes, but the amount of snow is actually more appropriate for late autumn at that altitude.

note 11:
Langley's San Francisco Directory lists the following addresses for Frederick Schafer:

Before 1880	(Not listed.)
1880	432 Montgomery St.
1881	432 Montgomery St.
1882	no listing
1883	211 Sutter (under "Painters-portrait, etc.) 327 Dupont (in the listing by name)
1884	1266 Kearny, room 39
1885	217 Phelan Building (886 Market Street)
1886	506 Battery
After 1886	(Not listed. In 1887 a different Frederick Schaefer is listed under "Painters-House".

note 12: Reported in the catalog for the 1971 exhibition Tropical Scenes by the 19th Century Painters of California, page 45.

note 14: Elizabeth M. Cock, The Influence of Photography on American Landscape Painting, 1839-1880, Ph. D. Thesis; Weston J. Naef, Era of Exploration.

note 15: I am indebted to Ray Castello for locating and bringing to my attention the Harry Fenn engraving of Chimney Rock. The suggestion that Schafer's paintings of the Mountain of the Holy Cross might be derivative comes from Patricia Trenton and Peter H. Hassrick, The Rocky Mountains, pages 155 and 170 and plate 60.