| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 30 x 50 in (76 x 127 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/l "F. Schafer", fraktur hand |
| Provenance: | With Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, 25 April 1985. With Sotheby Arcade, New York, 31 March 1993. |
| Reproductions: | 25 April 1985 sale catalog 3534C, lot 2326; Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #73 (color, 1985); 31 March 1993 sale catalog 1426, lot 186. |
| Site: | Unconfirmed, but apparently a few miles south of Salt Lake City. Based on the painting titles and other legends handed down with the paintings, the lake is called Bear Lake, the large central mountain is called Black Mountain, and the light-colored mountain on the left is called Crystal Mountain. But a search of Utah place names does not turn up any single location associated with all three names. |
| Description: | A view across a lake toward a dark mountain, which contrasts strongly with a bright, light, lower mountain on the left. A few conifers are on the left bank of the lake, while the right bank of lake is heavily forested. There are three tepees on the far, right bank, with smoke from a fire within. On a point extending out on the left side of the lake, two figures of Indians stand on the shore beside a canoe with three figures in it. (From a color photograph.) |
| Note: | Schafer painted this scene several times from slightly different vantage points. See the list of Wasatch Mountains, including Black Mountain, paintings. |
| Identification: | Descriptive title as found in the 1985 Bonhams & Butterfields sale catalog. Based on the similarity to Bear Lake in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah [2] it is likely that the title comes from an unmentioned verso inscription. In 1891 a painting with the title Bear Lake in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah was exhibited in Vancouver, British Columbia, but there is no other evidence that it is the same painting. |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0396.jpg)