| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 24 x 16 in (61 x 41 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "FSchafer" initials conjoined in a monogram, in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand |
| Provenance: | In collection of Oscar Lemer, D.D.S., and Trudy Lemer, San Francisco, California, by 1970. |
| Exhibited: | California Landscape Painting, 1860–1885, Palo Alto, California, 1975-76. |
| Reproductions: | Stanford University Visual Collection 76Q.97 (color, 1976); Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #30 (color, 1976); William K. Dick photo #119 (color, 1970) |
| Citations: | 1975 exhibition catalog, #1, page 49 |
| Description: | In the center, a gentle stream flows out of a green forest directly toward the viewer, to cover the entire bottom edge of the painting; the viewer stands in the water with a snag at the right. Both sides of the river are forested, very light and bright. The sky is blue, with clouds on the horizon. A large conifer with a white lower trunk stands at the right above a white boulder, leaning slightly to the left, and reaching nearly to the top of the painting. In front of it a black, dead tree trunk leans sharply to the right. Behind it, a pair of trees stand ramrod straight; behind that is just forest foliage. The left bank of the stream has brush in the foreground, a dead tree trunk leaning to the left in the middle distance, at the edge of more forest. The sky is a hazy blue-grey, with clouds on the horizon, and the water is dark. The detail and the bright greens and browns are all evocative of wilderness. (From a color photograph.) |
| Note: | The scene is almost identical in composition and content with William Keith's "In the Santa Cruz Mountains", Hearst Art Gallery, Saint Mary's College, Morago, California, #0-4. [Harrison, Alfred C. Jr., "John Ross Key, the California paintings", page 42.] Miller describes this painting and [Mountain peak 1] as pendants ("companion pieces"). |
| Identification: | Descriptive title of unknown origin, from the 1975 exhibition. The Early California and Western Art Research index identifies the slide with the 1975 exhibition and the collection of Oscar Lemer, D.D.S., and Trudy Lemer. The exhibition catalog gives the dimension as 16 x 24 in, but the photograph is of a painting in portrait orientation. |
| In index(es): | Title list, mountain streams through a forest |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0119.jpg)