| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 30 x 50 in (76 x 126 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "FSchafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand, initials conjoined in a monogram |
| Verso: | l/r "Morning. Mt. Shasta, Cal.", in black brush. On frame: l, "#156", in pencil; #5, in pencil; t "90." in pencil, "Cleaned an Varnished/Oct 1953", in pencil; label of Walter E. Jeune. |
| Provenance: | In collection of Joan Olive (Mrs. Robert) Dunsmuir, Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria, British Columbia, by 1909; to her estate; with H. W. Davies, M.A.A., & Sons, Auctioneers, 22 June 1909. With Kilshaw's Auctioneers, Victoria, British Columbia, in 1990; to The Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society, 1990. |
| Exhibited: | The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, February 1994 to April 1994. Currently on permanent public display in the castle, in the sitting room, east wall. |
| Citations: | 21 June 1909, auction catalog, lot 395. Dorothy Wrotnowski, (Victoria, British Columbia) The Daily Colonist, 21 March 1969; James K. Nesbitt, (Victoria, British Columbia) The Daily Colonist, 10 August 1973; James K. Nesbitt, The Vancouver Sun 29 July 1970 and 9 June 1973; Reksten, Terry, Craigdarroch: The Story of Dunsmuir Castle, 1987, page 41. Craigdarroch Castle accession file 990.003. |
| Site: | Mount Shasta, California, viewed through an unidentified valley, in morning light. |
| Description: | A twin-peaked, snow-capped mountain, lighted from the right, dominates the center of the painting beneath a deep blue sky with a few fluffy clouds. The left lower triangle of the painting is a foreground slope, covered with brush and small conifers, with three much larger conifers silhouetted agains the blue sky; to their left are a high, rocky, peaked crags. Near the lower left lies a brown snag. The right side of the valley is less steep and more forested, with one tree tall enough to be silhouetted agains the sky. (The intermediate distances are obscured in the photograph by flash reflections.) (From the painting, 11 September 1998.) |
| Note: | (1) Walter E. Jeune is a canvas supplier in Victoria, doing business in 1998 as Jeune Brothers Tent and Awning. (2) Reksten, Terry, Craigdarroch: The Story of Dunsmuir Castle suggests that Craigdarroch may have originally acquired this painting in a September 1891 auction (Vancouver Daily World, September 1891) held by Schafer in Vancouver, British Columbia. (3) The entire contents of Craigdarroch were sold at auction in 1909. The auction catalog lists eight paintings by Schafer; a painting with title that exactly matches the verso inscription on this painting was among the contents of the sitting room. According to Nesbitt in the The Vancouver Sun article, in recent years some effort went into reacquiring as many of the auctioned paintings as possible. This painting, acquired as part of that effort, is believed by Craigdarroch to be one of the original paintings, but complete documentation of its provenance is lacking. |
| Identification: | Craigdarroch Castle identifies the painting sold in the 1909 auction with the painting purchased in the 1990 auction, based on the identity of the titles. |
| In index(es): | Title list, Mount Shasta and Shastina, paintings currently held in museums and public collections |
![[photo]](../smalls/p/img0565.jpg)