| Date: | probably undated |
| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 30 x 50 in (76 x 127 in) |
| Inscription: | l/r "F. Schafer", fraktur hand |
| Verso: | said to be "The Alps of California" |
| Provenance: | With Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, August 1972. In private collection, Scottsdale, Arizona, to 2002; with Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, 9 June 2002; to private collection, San Francisco. |
| Reproductions: | William K. Dick photo #24 (color, 1972); 6 June 2002 sale catalog, lot 8142. |
| Description: | A snow-capped ridge runs from the left edge about three-fourths of the way across the painting, where it disappears behind a small grove of conifers standing on a dark green, rocky slope that appears as a triangle across the lower right. The sky, which has a few clouds, is a purplish hazy grey, almost the same shade as the haze that covers the lower reaches of the distant ridge, making it appear to float against the sky. A steep, rocky, beige cliff in the middle distance forms the far wall of a deep valley. The nearby, grass- and wildflower- covered slope has a prominent, long narrow boulder in the center, across which lies the trunk of a dead tree; a larger boulder lies near the right edge. (From a color photograph.) |
| Note: | This scene bears more similarity to the scene of On the McCloud River than it does to that of [The California Alps]. |
| Identification: | A painting with the title The Alps of California appeared in the Mechanics' Institute Nineteenth Industrial Exhibition in 1884, but the listings for that exhibition do not provide enough information to make a connection. |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img1021.jpg)