| Medium: | oil on canvas |
| Size: | 20 x 36 in (51 x 91 cm) |
| Inscription: | l/r "F. Schafer", in the artist's characteristic block-letter hand. The dot over the "a" is probably intended as an umlaut. |
| Provenance: | Sold 15 October 1979 for $2860 by Sotheby's, Los Angeles, as lot 225 in sale 262. In collection of Norio Takayama, M.D., Fresno, California, in 1985. Sold 23 November 2009 for $7320 by Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, as lot 153 in sale 17538. Offered January 2010 by Valley Fine Art, Aspen, Colorado. |
| Exhibited: | Fresno Collects: The First 100 Years, Fresno, California, 1985. |
| Reproductions: | Sotheby's 15 October 1979 sale catalog. Early California and Western Art Research/Schafer slide #76 (color, 1985), Bonhams & Butterfields 23 November 2009 sale catalog (color), Valley Fine Art website, January 2010 (color). |
| Site: | Great Plains (Montana?). |
| Description: | A dramatically shaded and colored desert scene. Two mounted Indians wearing white feathered headdresses in the center ride to the right, one on a light horse, the other on a dark one. The lighter, grey, grass-covered desert floor in the foreground is dotted with grey-green sagebrush; it contrasts sharply with a darker area in the middle distance; the horses follow the dividing line. In the background the desert floor becomes a deep blue; the horizon is dotted with a series of small bright white buttes and, at the right, a mesa. The sky in the top half of the painting is shaded in layers, grey at the horizon, then lavender, yellow, finally blue. Only the figures are detailed; the rest is broadly sketched and the brush in the foreground is impressionist in appearance. (From a color photograph.) See the list of Indians in desert locales for several possibly related pictures. |
| Identification: | Descriptive title of unknown origin, as used in the 1979 sale catalog. The Early California and Western Art Research index identifies the slide with the Fresno exhibition. |
| Other title(s): | Two Indians in Utah desert (Early California and Western Art Research index and Bonhams & Butterfields 2009 sale catalog) |
| In index(es): | Title list, Indians in desert locales |
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